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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | July 23, 2020 09:52 PM |
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| From: | Representative Russ Diamond |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Emergency Real Property Tax Relief Act |
| With a new school year fast approaching and various COVID-19 mitigation schemes being considered by the Commonwealth’s school districts, many parents are seeking educational alternatives to avoid having to send their children to a facility where the mitigation policy is not to their liking. Whether those mitigation plans are - in a parent’s opinion - too strong or too mild, we need to make every effort to allow them to seek out educational opportunities that fit their needs. To help parents accomplish that, in the near future I will be introducing the Emergency Real Property Tax Relief Act to create a school property tax discount program for academic years during which the COVID-19 related disaster emergency is in effect. Under this legislation, the sum of all tuition and school-related fees incurred by a resident taxpayer to educate a dependent, and documented to the school district by the resident taxpayer via an application created by the Department of Education, will be discounted from the taxpayer’s residential school property tax bill. The discount on real property taxes shall not exceed 100 percent of the resident taxpayer's real property tax liability. Each school district’s tax collector will also be required to provide a report to the Department regarding the total number of resident taxpayers qualifying for such a discount, the total number of dependents of resident taxpayers that attended an alternate public or nonpublic school, and the total amount of discounts on real property taxes provided to resident taxpayers. The Department will in turn provide a report to members of the General Assembly. No parent should be forced to send their child to a school which is not enacting mitigation policies the parent deems appropriate. In fulfilling our constitutional duty regarding education, we are obligated to make every effort to make sure parents are able to be confident in how their children will be educated during this disaster emergency. Please join me in cosponsoring this legislation to help parents smoothly navigate and continue the education of their children. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB2803