"An Act relating to the determination of full and true value of taxable municipal property for purposes of providing planning assistance to the Department of Education and Early Development and the legislature, calculating funding for education, calculating school district participating shares for school construction grants, and calculating tax resource equalization payments and excluding from that determination the value of property in certain areas detached from a municipality and the value of certain property involved with oil and gas that is not taxed by a municipality. "

Under current law, organized cities that are school districts and boroughs are required to make financial contributions in support of their schools. Those contributions are based on the value of the taxable property within the borough boundaries. These municipalities are required to contribute the equivalent of a 4-mill tax on the full and true value of all taxable property within their municipal boundaries.

The full and true value of a municipality includes values of all taxable real and personal property, which includes properties such as, oil and gas properties, residential and commercial property, farms and recreational property.

HB 217 does not force municipalities into levying a property tax to generate local revenue for school contribution by including the value of oil and gas properties in the full value determination. It excludes the value for oil and gas unless the municipality chooses to levy a property tax. This accomplishes two things. First, it allows the municipality to choose the method of raising revenues. Without the high value of oil and gas, a municipality may chose other methods of raising revenues, such as a sales tax. Second, it allows the state to keep the 20 mills levied against all oil and gas property. If a municipality is forced to levy a property tax, the tax levied against the oil and gas property is deducted from the revenues the State of Alaska should receive. This is a win- win situation for both the municipalities and the state.

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