SB4

The introduced bill and Senate committee report match in operative text. They already proposed $140,000, but would have consolidated school aid and repealed two existing aid provisions. Those proposed repeals did not survive.

Both Senate floor amendments were adopted February 13. Bettencourt amendment F1 restricted debt aid to the relevant bonds, revised the 2025 rate-calculation fallback, expanded the compression-aid transition and replaced the supplemental-roll approach with provisional appraisal rolls. Amendment F2 preserved the existing aid provisions instead of repealing them, separated the new exemption protection, moved debt-aid reductions into the amendment-contingent article and protected the new aid floor rather than permitting reductions to zero.

The Senate-passed text and House committee report match. The House adopted Meyer’s amendment 1, changing the eligible-debt cutoff from January 1 to September 1, 2025, and making the revised compression aid continue each year beginning with 2023–24 instead of limiting it to two years. The House tabled Olcott and colleagues’ amendment 2, which proposed a $160,000 exemption. That larger amount is not enacted SB4.

The amendment index lists these four amendments. The House passed the amended bill 143–0, with one present not voting; the Senate concurred 31–0. There was no conference version. Official version index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Qualifying homeowners benefit directly; renters and owners of non-homestead property do not receive this exemption directly. As a simple illustration, if the full extra $40,000 of exemption applies and the school tax rate is $1 per $100 of value, it reduces that school’s tax by $400. Actual savings depend on taxable value, rates, existing exemptions and tax ceilings; it does not guarantee that the total bill falls by $400 or that rising values and other taxes cannot offset savings.

School districts receive formula-based state support for specified revenue losses, shifting costs toward the state rather than simply leaving schools to absorb the full exemption. The final-version May 21 fiscal note estimates $2.743 billion in net general-revenue-related costs for fiscal 2026–27, including administration. It also identifies potentially significant additional debt-service aid costs that cannot be estimated because data on debt eligible by September 1, 2025 were insufficient. The headline estimate is therefore not a complete maximum cost. SB4 itself does not appropriate money.

The note projects school property-tax levy reductions of about $1.482 billion in fiscal 2026 and $1.613 billion in 2027. Its state school-finance cost already includes reduced recapture payments—about $337 million and $410 million respectively—so those amounts should not be added again to the state-cost total. State aid, district tax losses and household savings are related but different measures.

The introduced fiscal note estimated only $1.036 billion net for the biennium because it assumed savings from aid changes later removed. The Senate-passed note had the $2.743 billion estimate; the final note added the uncertainty associated with the later debt cutoff. The trade-off is larger homeowner relief and protected school revenues against ongoing state-budget obligations.