Restore Gallagher Amendment to Property Tax

Under a provision commonly known as the "Gallagher Amendment", the state constitution previously required that the percentage of the aggregate assessed value attributable to residential real property remain the same as it was in the year immediately preceding a new reassessment cycle. Under the Gallagher Amendment, the assessment rate for most nonresidential property was fixed at 29% of actual value, and over time, as residential property values increased, the assessment rate for residential property was driven down, from 21% of actual value in 1985, to 7.15% of actual value in 2019, in order to maintain the required percentage of statewide assessed value attributable to residential property.

In 2020, the general assembly adopted, and the voters approved, an amendment to the state constitution to repeal the Gallagher Amendment, thus eliminating the required proportion of statewide assessed value attributable to residential real property and the constitutionally fixed assessment rate for most nonresidential property.

The concurrent resolution amends the state constitution to reestablish the essential components of the Gallagher Amendment by:

• Setting a new base year, which is the 2026 property tax year, for determining the percentage of the aggregate statewide assessed value that is attributable to residential real property;
• Requiring that percentage of the aggregate statewide assessed value attributable to residential real property to remain the same as the percentage in the year immediately preceding a new reassessment cycle;
• Requiring the general assembly to establish the valuation for assessment for residential real property to ensure compliance with the proportion required by the state constitution; and
• Permanently fixing the valuation for assessment for nonresidential property, other than producing mines and lands or leaseholds producing oil or gas, to be as set forth in state statute for the 2026 property tax year.
  (Note: This summary applies to this concurrent resolution as introduced.)