Bill Text: DE HB223 | 2015-2016 | 148th General Assembly | Draft
Bill Title: An Act To Amend Title 29 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Compensatory Payments For Certain Exempt Properties Owned By The State.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-12-10 - Introduced and Assigned to Appropriations Committee in House [HB223 Detail]
Download: Delaware-2015-HB223-Draft.html
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SPONSOR: |
Rep. Baumbach & Sen. Sokola Reps. Kowalko, Osienski;Sens. Hall-Long, Peterson, Townsend |
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 148th GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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HOUSE BILL NO. 223 |
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AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO COMPENSATORY PAYMENTS FOR CERTAIN EXEMPT PROPERTIES OWNED BY THE STATE. |
Section 1. Amend Section 8318, Title 29 of the Delaware Code by making insertions as shown by underlining and deletions as shown by strike through as follows:
§8318. Compensatory payments for certain exempt properties owned by the State.
(a) The county seat in each county, as well as those cities
with a population over 25,000 and at least 20% tax-exempt property, shall appraise and assess real
property taxes on all property owned by the State excluding properties owned by
the Delaware Housing Authority, or Delaware Solid Waste Authority, Delaware State University, or the
University of Delaware, lying
within their respective city limits. Each county seat, or city with a
population over 25,000 and at least 20% tax-exempt property, shall annually submit statements of
these appraisals and assessments unto the Secretary of the Department of
Finance, said assessments and appraisals to be in accordance with their
respective procedures for appraising and assessing real property.
(b) The Secretary of Finance shall examine and inspect the aforementioned assessment and appraisals and shall have all rights to question the assessments and appeal any decisions regarding the same. If the Secretary of Finance is satisfied that the assessments and appraisals are accurate, then the Secretary shall direct payment to the County Seat, or qualifying city, according to the following schedule:
(1) For those
county seats with populations
under 50,000 with less than 20%
tax-exempt property, with
a population between 0--50,000 residents, the
Secretary shall direct a payment of 30.8% 36.0% of the tax assessed to said county
seats.
(2) For those county seats with populations under 50,000 with more than 20% tax-exempt property, the Secretary shall direct a payment of 18.0% of the tax assessed to said county seats.
(23)
For those county seats with a population above 50,000 residents, the Secretary
shall direct a payment of 100.0% of the tax assessed to said county seats.
(4) For non-county seat cities with a population over 25,000 and more than 20% tax exempt property, the Secretary shall direct a payment of 12.0% of the tax assessed to said cities.
(c) The total amount of payments made by the Secretary with
respect to all county seats and qualifying cities shall not exceed $3,000,000 $3,500,000 in any state fiscal year.
(d) In any fiscal year, if total compensatory payments, as
calculated under subsection (a) of this section, exceeds the amount allocated
in subsection (c) of this section, then the payments to be received by each
county seat or qualifying city shall be the product of $3,000,000 $3,500,000 multiplied by a fraction, the
numerator of which is the payment that would otherwise be due to a county seat or qualifying city under subsections (a) and (b) of this
section and the denominator is the total of all compensatory payments that
would otherwise be due to all county seats and
qualifying cities pursuant to
subsections (a) and (b) of this section. The Secretary of Finance has the right
to withhold payment to any county seat or
city until the assessments
and appraisals of all 3 counties and
other qualifying cities have
been submitted and verified.
Section 2. This Act shall take effect immediately upon its enactment into law.
SYNOPSIS
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This bill changes the program for distributing payments to cities with tax-exempt properties owned by the State. Instead of directing payments only to county seats (Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown), the bill will authorize payments as well to any city with a population over 25,000 and more than 20% tax exempt property. It also raises the annual cap on the amount distributed by $500,000 and adjusts the formula under which these distributions are made.
This bill improves the formulas to enable the elimination of specific dollar earmarks, and to enable all of our state higher education institutions to be treated equally in this section. The bill is designed to ensure a slight dollar increase to each of the three county seats, while initially adding Newark to the program, at a much lower benefit level than the other three cities.
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