Updated: Top Lawmakers Agree There’s No Consensus On Personal Property Tax

Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho

House Speaker Scott Bedke said Tuesday that he doesn't think there's "broad-based resolution" on how the Legislature should address the personal property tax.

UPDATE: The competing personal property tax bills that were introduced last week have both been removed from Thursday’s agenda.

Times-News reporter Melissa Davlin reports that the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry will introduce a third personal property tax bill on Friday.

Originally, committee chairman Gary Collins, R-Nampa, said he intended to hold a vote on the two bills on Thursday. Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, said he wasn’t sure why Collins didn’t put the bills on the agenda.

“My guess is there still needs to be discussion as to what amendments, if any, might be put forward,” Hartgen said.

Hartgen didn’t have exact details, but speculated both bills might see changes.

Collins wasn’t immediately available for comment. – Times-News

ORIGINAL POST: It’s one of the most-watched issues of the 2013 session, but Idaho’s legislative leaders aren’t sure lawmakers will eliminate or partially eliminate the state’s tax on business equipment.

The House Revenue and Taxation Committee meets Thursday to weigh two bills that address Idaho’s business personal property tax.

House Speaker Scott Bedke (R-Oakley) indicated at an Idaho Press Club lunch on Tuesday that a big hang-up is whether the state can afford to get rid of the tax that generates $140 million annually for local government and taxing districts and replace those forgone dollars with state revenue.

“We are not experiencing phenomenal revenue growth, and neither is there an accompanying broadening of the tax base,” Bedke said. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing the Legislature struggle with at the moment.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Brent Hill (R-Rexburg) agreed that the Legislature hasn’t reached a consensus. “As the Speaker says, this has to mellow. It has to ripen, and then it hast to be harvested,” he said.

The House Revenue and Taxation Committee has two very different proposals to consider. One, from the Idaho Association of Counties, would exempt the first $100,000 worth of business personal property and replace the lost revenue with an annual $19 million payment from state funds. The competing bill, backed by the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, would eliminate the tax between now and 2019, at a maximum annual cost of $120 million.

The committee meets at 8 a.m.