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Committee adopts substitute for wide-ranging local-tax bill, moves it out 13-1
Summary
A large House committee substitute combining numerous local tax and special-district provisions (House Committee Substitute for HB 532) was adopted with amendments and reported do pass by a 13-1 vote after committee discussion and a late amendment for two municipal public-safety taxes.
The House Committee on Local Government debated and adopted a committee substitute for House Bill 532, a package combining a number of local-tax and special-district provisions that had been introduced across several individual bills.
Representative Kelly, the bill handler, briefed the committee on the committee substitute and said the principal change in the latest draft was removal of a sheltered-workshop provision and the addition of several special local sales-tax authorizations for municipalities.
"We took out the sheltered workshop, which was in there. That was supposed to be taken out originally anyway," Representative Kelly said, describing revisions made before the substitute was presented.
The committee considered and adopted an amendment (ending in 0.01h) from Representative Thompson to add a public-safety tax option for the cities of Lexington and Lake Lotawanna. Committee members discussed the procedural difficulty of large substitutes and last-minute amendments but expressed support for consolidating many local requests into a single vehicle to allow communities to seek voter approval for local options.
Representative Faulkner and others commended the sponsor for pulling together multiple communities' requests into one substitute and urged the panel to move it forward so local voters could decide in their communities.
The committee adopted the substitute (with the amendment rolled in) and then voted the House Committee substitute for House Bill 532 do pass. On the final roll call, the committee recorded 13 ayes and 1 no (Representative Wolfen voted no); the motion and subsequent passage cleared the committee.
Key points from committee discussion and sponsor notes: - The substitute removed a sheltered-workshop provision that had mistakenly remained in an earlier draft. - Several municipal sales-tax authorizations were added to the substitute; sponsors said these are local opt-in items that give municipalities authority to place questions before voters. - A late amendment added a public-safety tax authorization for Lexington and Lake Lotawanna.
The substitute’s adoption and the committee vote clear the measure to move forward, subject to any floor scheduling and potential further amendments.
