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Committee advances hurricane-Helene relief bill adding timber 'Trees Act' and raising per-acre credit
Summary
The committee passed House Bill 223, a governor-backed package of Hurricane Helene relief measures that exempts certain disaster payments, provides timber loss credits (the 'Trees Act'), and extends sales-tax exemptions for livestock building supplies; members debated the per-acre credit amount and refundable/transferable features.
The Senate Finance Committee approved House Bill 223, a multi-part hurricane-relief measure sponsored in the House and presented to the committee as a governor-backed bill addressing damage from Hurricane Helene.
Representative Burchett, who presented the bill, described three core components: (1) exemption of disaster-relief payments and certain crop-insurance proceeds tied to Helene damage, (2) a tax credit for timber owners to account for casualty losses (the transcript and presenters referred to this as the "Trees Act"), and (3) an exemption from sales tax for building supplies used for livestock barns. Burchett said the original timber-credit cap was $400 per acre, which was increased in committee discussion to $550 per acre to reflect higher costs for removal and replanting.
Senator Hickman, among others, pressed for clarity on why the cap moved from $400 to the higher figure and on how the credit interacts with calculated casualty-loss amounts. The presenter explained the credit is the lesser of the calculated loss and the per-acre cap (the bill author said the credit would be applied up to the claimant’s calculated loss). Senator Tillery and others questioned the trees-act provisions that would make the timber credit refundable and discussed a possible transferability feature; committee members expressed concern that transferability could create perverse incentives and said the tax credit requires reforestation to qualify.
Committee members discussed fiscal impacts. The transcript recorded a fiscal estimate tied to a related Senate bill (Senate Bill 52) with a maximum of about $17 million; presenters noted the inclusion of the Trees Act and the change from $400 to $550 per acre would alter the total fiscal exposure, but precise totals were not finalized in committee. Senator Hickman and the chair of appropriations also discussed potential county timber-tax revenue impacts. After questioning, the committee moved and passed the bill by voice vote; the measure must return to the House for concurrence on amendments made in the Senate.
