Governor signs vehicle tax bill passed by General Assembly

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear signed legislation Thursday that freezes property taxes on vehicles for the next two years.

House Bill 6, sponsored by state Reps. Patrick Flannery, R-Grayson, and Sal Santoro, R-Union, requires officials to use valuations from January 2021 for assessing taxes on vehicles in 2022 and 2023. It also requires taxes to be assessed based on a vehicle’s median value rather than lower or high values going forward.

Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, spoke on behalf of the bill when it was considered by the Senate on March 2, saying the changes will ensure that vehicles are valued appropriately in the current environment.

In part, the legislation mirrors language from a resolution that the Senate passed in February to freeze assessments.

“As most of us will recall, after the administration’s finance cabinet sent a letter to property valuation administrators instructing them as to how to proceed with used car valuations this year, we began to receive a deluge of calls from angered used car owners who saw their property taxes increase dramatically due to the current fluke in availability of used vehicles,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said Douglas’s resolution provided an appropriate response to the issue, and the governor has since acted to freeze assessments. But HB 6 will codify the intent of the legislature, he said.

HB 6 advanced off the Senate floor with a 34-0 vote March 2 and was sent back to the House for concurrence. The House agreed with the final version of the bill, which was sent to the governor for his consideration. Beshear signed the legislation Thursday.

The bill states that taxpayers who have already paid their property tax bill for this year will automatically receive a refund, if owed, within 90 days from the effective date of the bill. It also seeks to improve appeals to property valuation administrators regarding errors in valuations.