A bill that would have phased out a reviled business tax over a 40-year period was changed by a Senate panel Tuesday to merely create a task force to study the issue.
Opponents of Senate Bill 85 worried that if the tax were eliminated, counties would have no way to make up the lost revenue and the state would be hit with a huge tab to backfill school-district budgets.
Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, said he was disappointed the business personal-property tax won’t be phased out. But he said he is relieved that the discussion about the tax will continue, although “it’s been studied to death.”
“There’s nobody that says, ‘This is such a great tax, we need to protect it,’ ” Scheffel said. “It’s always been ‘This is a lousy tax. We need to get rid of it; we just can’t figure out a way to do that.’ ”
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 6-4 to send the bill establishing a task force to the full Senate.
The business personal-property tax is assessed on everything from desks to heavy equipment, and counties with power plants and railroads receive huge infusions of the tax money.
Scheffel earlier amended his bill to exempt the eight Colorado counties that rely most on the tax.
Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, said he was “sympathetic and supportive” of what Scheffel was trying to do but that there needs to be a plan to replace the money the tax raises.
Scheffel’s bill would have gradually phased out the tax starting in 2011. That year, the state would have been required to reimburse school districts $1.4 million in lost business personal-property-tax revenue.
Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, has argued that the state, already in a budget crisis, doesn’t have the money.
But Scheffel said he thinks that’s a “legitimate state expenditure.”
“Hey, if we have to prioritize in order to get rid of this tax, then we need to make room for it,” he said.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
