Committee adopts technical fix to Olene Walker housing bill, then holds bill pending fiscal note

At a House Economic Development Workforce Services Committee meeting, members adopted House Amendment 2 to House Bill 286 (Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund Amendments) and then voted to hold the bill so staff could produce a corrected fiscal note.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Carol Moss, would dedicate 25% of the net profits from state liquor sales to the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund, with 60% of that amount proposed for deeply affordable rental housing (targeted to roughly 40% of area median income) and the remainder for affordable homeownership programs (targeted to about 30–80% of AMI depending on location). Representative Moss told the committee that the bill needed a technical fix because the earlier draft mistakenly referenced “sales tax profits” rather than “net profits.” She and supporters asked the panel to adopt House Amendment 2 to correct that language; the committee adopted that amendment by voice vote.

The committee then voted to hold HB 286 until the corrected fiscal note is available. Representative Cutler moved to hold the bill…