Members of the conference committee for House Bill 1006 discussed funding the State Tax Commissioner’s office for staff reclassifications, salary equity adjustments and one-time outreach and technology costs tied to the primary residence tax credit.

The Senate proposed three changes the committee reviewed: $215,011 for reclassification of positions, $296,789 for equity salary adjustments and a one-time $1,500,000 general-fund appropriation for promoting and supporting the primary residence tax credit (PRC), including technology changes to accept electronic applications, committee members said. Senator Wozniak summarized those items as the Senatechanges and said the cooperative-ownership language was added so co-op shareholders could qualify for the primary-residence credit under certain conditions.

Sherry Anderson, chief fiscal officer for the Office of the State Tax Commissioner, told the committee the equity funding would cover multiple positions across the agency and that the $296,789 amount corresponds to 16 positions and related fringe. Anderson said the $215,011 reclassification figure would cover roughly 10 positions "peppered throughout the agency" and that the departmenthas shifted many functions to digital systems over the past 15 years, reducing headcount while increasing the need for staff with coding and systems skills to triage outages and run crosschecks.

On the one-time $1.5 million, Anderson said the money was used to promote the PRC and to make technology enhancements so the tax office could accept applications electronically and perform cross-system checks. Committee members and staff gave conflicting statements about how much of that $1.5 million had been spent: one committee member said the department had used about 99 percent of the funds during the outreach period, while Anderson later said the office had residual marketing costs and that "we're probably not gonna spend it all." The transcript records both statements; the committee did not resolve the discrepancy in the meeting.

Lawmakers also discussed adding language to allow cooperative-ownership customers to qualify for the PRC when they own a share of a cooperative that entitles them to a separate living unit. Senator Wozniak and others said it might be cleaner to place that language in the standalone tax bill that ultimately carries the PRC changes, because the budget bill currently contains multiple policy provisions that overlap with other pending legislation.

Committee members repeatedly said they must wait for final cost estimates from the committee handling the standalone tax package (referred to in the meeting as committee 1176) before finalizing the budget numbers for the PRC, the homestead tax credit and the disabled-veterans credit. Multiple speakers said the order in which credits are applied (disabled veterans, homestead, then primary-residence credit) can change how much appropriation is needed in the general fund and that one provision under consideration (an expansion of homestead income levels) could change the budget by roughly $11.6 million if it is included.

Next steps recorded at the meeting: staff will coordinate with committee 1176 to obtain final estimated costs for the PRC and related credits, and the conference committee will reconvene to set final appropriations. Lawmakers also flagged a separate bill (Senate Bill 2093) for future discussion related to a tax exclusion for surviving spouses of highway patrol officers.