SJR 53 - This constitutional amendment, if approved by the voters, prohibits total state general revenue appropriations for any fiscal year, as defined in the amendment, from exceeding the level from the previous fiscal year, allowing for growth in an amount equal to the annual rate of inflation plus the annual percentage change in state population. Total state general revenue appropriations may exceed the previous fiscal year’s amount only under certain conditions, as described in the amendment. For any fiscal year in which net general revenue collections exceed total state general revenue appropriations by more than one percent of allowable total state general revenue appropriations, an amount equal to such excess revenue shall be deposited in the "Personal Property Reimbursement Fund", which is created by the amendment.
Beginning with the 2025 calendar year, this amendment requires the percentage at which personal property is assessed to be reduced over a period of four years, so as to produce the following total amounts of revenue, aggregated across all taxing jurisdictions:
(a) For the 2025 calendar year, seventy-five percent of the base assessment revenue;
(b) For the 2026 calendar year, fifty percent of the base assessment revenue;
(c) For the 2027 calendar year, twenty-five percent of the base assessment revenue;
(d) For the 2028 and all subsequent calendar years, personal property shall be assessed at zero percent of its true value in money.
The amendment defines "base assessment revenue" as the total revenue generated from taxes levied on personal property using the assessment percentage in effect as of the 2024 calendar year, as determined by the State Tax Commission.
For all fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2025, each taxing authority levying a tax on personal property as of January 1, 2024, shall be entitled to a reimbursement for all revenues lost because of reductions made to the base assessment percentage pursuant to this amendment. Reimbursements shall be made from the Personal Property Reimbursement Fund. The amount that a taxing authority shall be entitled to receive shall be equal to the base assessment revenue for the taxing authority minus the actual revenues generated from taxes levied on personal property during the calendar year. If the balance in the Personal Property Reimbursement Fund is insufficient to fully reimburse all taxing jurisdictions, the amount of such insufficiency shall stand appropriated from the General Revenue fund.
This amendment is similar to SJR 7 (2023), SJR 6 (2021), SJR 42 (2020), SJR 4 (2019), SJR 31 (2018), and SJR 12 (2017), and to a provision contained in HCS/HJR 56 (2016).
JOSH NORBERG