Kentucky boat tax bill to be passed over?
LEXINGTON, Ky. – There’s a good chance that Kentucky House Bill 466 – which would remove from state law language allowing local tax entities to veto tax exemptions for boats registered with the federal government – will be passed over this year.
It’s stuck in the state’s House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, and committee chairman Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, said the group has “more important things to do” than give the bill a hearing this session, according to an article today in The Courier-Journal.
After a chance in policy last year that resulted in 2,800 boat owners being sent tax bills for the first time in years, some in the state are concerned that boaters will sell their vessels or move them to other states, according to the newspaper. Added to that is concern over the impact of a planned drawdown of water levels on Lake Cumberland this summer to repair a dam.
Many boaters are fighting back, having formed a lobbying group called Kentucky Documented Boaters. A lawyer representing the group told the newspaper that the state’s tourism is “in a crisis” and that the tax brings in too little revenue to risk losing boaters to other states.
If the bill doesn’t get a hearing this year, backers plan to introduce it again next year, according to the newspaper.
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