Brenda Josephson: Dunleavy signs property tax assessment reform into law

This week saw the fruition of a grassroots effort to improve Alaska’s property tax assessment process by establishing guardrails to protect the public from bad actors from abusing property owners at the local level. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed SB179, an act relating to municipal property tax, into law on Monday.

The law aims to establish public trust in the assessment process, promote transparency, and uphold due process by:

• Ensuring proper certification of property assessors
• Providing a requirement for baseline assessment standards
• Changing the default for who hears an appeal to an appointed board of equalization
• Preventing an increase in assessed value upon appeal
• Requiring the record to document the rationale for rejecting a recent fee appraisal as full and true market value

Additionally, the new law offers property tax assessment relief to foster:

• Home affordability by preventing municipality and state transfer tax on the sale of real property
• Promote food security for Alaskans by allowing a municipality the opportunity to exempt farm land and farm structures from property tax
• Economic development by providing a process for a municipality to temporarily exempt some properties from taxation

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman originally introduced SB179 in January to prohibit a transfer tax on real property sales. In his sponsor statement, Bjorkman stated that the legislation was “the result of numerous conversations with realtors from around the state as well as representatives of municipalities… Imposing these taxes increases the cost of purchasing a home, the largest investment most Alaskans will make in their lifetime.”

Rep. Julie Coulombe introduced HB134, companion legislation to Bjorkman’s Senate bill, in the House. Coulombe reached across the aisle for consensus in the House of Representatives. Her companion bill gained bipartisan support with fourteen co-sponsors.

During the legislative process, the House amended SB179 to include HB347 relating to property assessment (a companion bill to SB242 introduced by Sen. Jesse Kiehl), SB161 exemptions for farm land and structures, and portions of SB77 exemptions for economic development. The amended bill became a comprehensive act for reforming property taxes and the assessment process.

The act, in the words of Rep. Coulombe, “helps to build back trust with the community by ensuring proper certification of property assessors and strengthening a property owner’s ability to appeal their assessment and get a fair shake.” She added that SB179 “helps keep people in their homes.”

In the final days of the legislative session, SB179 received overwhelming support in both chambers, with a bipartisan 39-1 vote in the House and unanimous support of 20-0 in the Senate.

This week, SB179 was signed into law, a remarkable effort for moving important legislation though in one legislative session.

Brenda Josephson is a Haines resident. She co-authored the white paper Restoring Public Trust: Legislative recommendations for Alaska’s property tax assessments.