Committee adopts reporting clarification for fisheries production development tax credit

Senate Bill 130, which revises the fisheries production development tax credit, was advanced out of the Senate Resources Committee on unanimous consent after the committee adopted an amendment clarifying species‑specific reporting requirements.

Senator Giesel explained the committee had previously heard SB130 and had amendments to consider. Senator Wilikowski offered Amendment A2, which "clarifies that the number of recipients and amount of tax credits must continue to be reported for each species of fish to ensure the legislative finance division has the data necessary to evaluate the tax credit," he said. Committee staff explained Legislative Finance had found in a 2021 evaluation that the tax credit produced measurable effects for salmon but lacked data to evaluate effectiveness for herring; the amendment restored explicit language requiring disclosure "for each species."

Tim Lampkin, staff to Senator Stevens and to the seafood industry task force, told the committee he had "no objections" to the amendment. With no further discussion or public testimony, Senator Wilikowski moved, and the committee accepted without objection, that SB130 (work order 34-LS-0735\A) be reported out of committee "as amended" with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. Legislative Legal was authorized to make technical and conforming changes.

The amendment sponsors and staff presented the change as narrowly targeted to preserve species‑level transparency in program reporting so Legislative Finance can measure program performance by species rather than in aggregate.