Senate Ways and Means approves 'ought to pass' on House Bill 123 and places it on consent calendar

The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to issue an "ought to pass" recommendation on House Bill 123 and placed the bill on the committee’s consent calendar after a brief discussion of committee assignment and a newly created study commission.

Senator Sullivan moved that the committee give House Bill 123 an "ought to pass" recommendation; Senator Lang seconded the motion. The motion carried on a voice vote with senators responding "Aye." The committee then voted, on a motion moved by Senator Sullivan and seconded by Senator Lang, to place the bill on the consent calendar.

Committee discussion explained why the committee is handling the bill. Senator Murphy said the original bill dealt with a statewide tax expansion, but after reassignment the Senate Energy and Agriculture Committee rewrote the measure with a wipe-and-replace that established a study commission to examine timber taxation and carbon-sequestration issues. Given that change, Murphy said the committee should allow the study commission to develop policy recommendations before pursuing a substantive tax expansion.

Murphy summarized his view: because the Energy and Agriculture Committee’s version establishes a study commission to evaluate implications of timber tax changes versus carbon-sequestration approaches, Ways and Means would defer to that process and "we can address the outcome of that whether it creates a new tax or whether whatever the study committee comes up with." He invited testimony but no one signed up to speak, and Senator Sullivan moved the committee recommendation.

The motions and voice votes were recorded in the transcript; no roll-call counts or speaker-by-speaker votes were specified.