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Committee adopts amendment and reports out substitute bill changing conservation district parcel charges and treasurer collections
Summary
Substitute House Bill 14‑88, which eliminates a maximum per‑parcel charge for conservation districts and addresses county treasurer collection practices, was amended in committee and reported out with a due‑pass recommendation after an 11–4 roll‑call vote.
Substitute House Bill 14‑88, relating to conservation districts, was amended and reported out of the House Finance Committee with a due‑pass recommendation after roll‑call voting.
Staff framed the bill as eliminating a maximum per‑parcel rate for district rates and charges and initially as including adjustments to amounts county treasurers could retain to cover implementation costs. Representative Berg offered Amendment HERA 3‑67 to remove the proposed adjustments to the amounts county treasurers may collect. "I'm putting forth this amendment to remove the cap that was placed in the bill for the...collection by the treasurer from the Conservation District," Representative Berg said when offering the amendment. Committee members debated whether a 1% reimbursement to treasurers was adequate; Representative Orcutt said the 1% might be too low in some cases and suggested further discussion as the bill moves forward.
The committee adopted Amendment HERA 3‑67 by voice vote. After rolling the amendment into a substitute bill, Vice Chair Street moved that substitute House Bill 14‑88 be reported out of committee with a due‑pass recommendation. The committee then conducted a roll‑call vote. The clerk read the roll; the chair asked members to cast votes that were recorded as: Berg — aye; Street — aye; Orcutt — nay; Jacobson — no/do not pass; Abel — nay/do not pass; Chase — aye; Mena — aye; Partially — aye; Penner — nay; Rammell — aye; Santos — aye; Scott — aye; Springer — aye; Wallen — aye; Wiley — aye. Staff announced the final tally as 11 ayes and 4 nays. The clerk then reported: "By your vote, substitute House Bill 14 88 is reported out of committee with a due pass recommendation." The committee concluded that executive session item and moved on to the next agenda items.
Because the adopted amendment removed the treasurer collection adjustments that had been in the bill, the substitute advanced with the amendment in place; committee discussion indicated remaining questions about appropriate reimbursement levels for county treasurers as the bill moves forward.
