The Arizona House Ways and Means Committee voted to move forward a bill that would scrap the rent tax at the city, town and county levels.
If enacted, House Bill 2067 would not allow someone to face a tax if they’re leasing property for residential purposes, starting on January 1, 2024.
Rep. Neal Carter, R-San Tan Valley, told the committee that this would serve as needed financial relief.
“A tax on rent is anti-progressive. It inordinately affects the poor. Those who are renting, after all, we don’t tax mortgages,” Carter said Wednesday. “There are states that do. I used to run a title company in New York and they had a stamp tax for mortgages. We do not, so we are instead shifting that tax burden to renters, who are typically lower-income people.”
This would not apply to lodging, like hotels and motels, “health care facilities” including long-term care, and “other transient lodging businesses,” according to the bill.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee noted that municipalities would lose $89.6 million in revenue in the fiscal year 2024, and $230.2 million in the fiscal year 2025 as a result.
“We cannot afford to have any more cuts to our budget and our revenue. Rural communities do not have the opportunity, as many others do, to grow,” Superior Mayor Mila Besich-Lira said in opposition to the bill.
Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, has a similar bill making its way through the Senate, but it would instead start on October 1, 2024, based on the current version of the bill.
Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
