Legislative Update - 2026 Mid Week Update
Mid-Week Legislative Update
Wednseday March 4th, 2026
Just TWO DAYS LEFT in the session after today. Here are some things the RHA has been working on this week:
SB 97 Tax Revenue Amendments by Sen. Dan McCay (R)
As you may have heard, The RHA of Utah received a grant from the National Apartment Association to run an issue advocacy campaign to oppose SB 97, the bill that would remove the primary residential property tax exemption from rental properties.
The campaign engaged RHA members, other rental housing providers, real estate practitioners, and tenants to send a message to their legislators expressing concerns about this ill-considered proposal. So far in the campaign, over 1500 messages have been sent to legislators expressing opposition to the proposal. The campaign will continue through next week to make sure Legislators know how important this property tax exemption is to maintain for the long term.
SB 97 evolved with each substitute bill. The third substitute put that residential property tax exemption to 40% from the current 45%. The RHA continued to oppose the bill because we believe the tax treatment of owner-occupied and rental properties should be equal. The RHA worked in conjunction with the UAR and others to lobby the Senate leading up to the final consideration of the bill on the Senate Floor last night.
When the bill came up for debate Senator Cal Musselman proposed an amendment to change the 40% exemption for rental properties to 45%. Senator Musselman did a great job advocating for rental property owners and renters and discussed how this tax policy change would not be an effective policy change to incentivize home ownership. The amendment ended up passing comfortably with over 20 votes and the bill was amended. At the point, the RHA was neutral on the amended bill. However, the amended bill still failed on a 14-15 vote.
We want to sincerely thank all RHA members, industry friends, and the other stakeholders and members of the general public who reached out to their legislators to express support for the status quo property tax policy.