Senate Finance clears tax-amnesty measure, approves drinking-water funding and advances multiple budget items

The Senate Finance Committee voted Wednesday to approve a Department of Revenue tax-amnesty program projected to generate about $5,000,000 in its first year and to advance a major drinking-water infrastructure funding item for the state—s southern tier, while taking several other line items off the committee—s active list for further work.

The committee approved the tax-amnesty item after a motion by Senator Lang and a second by Senator Bertso; Senator Lang told the committee, "we estimated it'll bring about $5,000,000 in revenue in the first by in first year of the biennium at a cost of $50,000 which I think is a great return on the state's investment." The committee recorded the motion as approved.

The meeting's longest debate centered on a proposed drinking-water and infrastructure appropriation tied to housing development in the state's southern tier and the interaction of that appropriation with the Drinking Water Groundwater Trust Fund. Senator Carson, who sponsored the budget language for the southern-tier project, described the funding as "an extremely important project" and said it had already received ARPA support; he noted the appropriation would not complete construction and that "there's an additional $14,000,000 that will be needed to complete the project." Senator Lang said the measure "is the kind of direct investment in infrastructure that's gonna spur housing" in the southern tier; other members expressed concern that routing the dollars through the general budget rather than the advisory commission could reduce funds available for the Trust Fund's other priorities, such as PFAS remediation and grants to disadvantaged communities.

Following debate, the committee approved the drinking-water appropriation as presented. Committee members discussed and proposed follow-up steps, including potential amendments and future efforts to identify replacement funds for the Trust Fund should federal or settlement money become available.

The committee also considered a consumer-protection measure for public electric-vehicle charging stations that had been passed as Senate Bill 150 and retained in the House. Committee members discussed the proposal—s intent to inspect publicly available charging stations "like we inspect gas pumps" to protect consumers and to ensure units deliver billed kilowatt-hours. The committee voted to take that item off the committee—s active list (to be addressed later), not to approve it on the floor at this meeting.

On education language under the Department of Education, members debated an amendment whose language would affect programs serving people with disabilities. Senator Rosenwald warned that replacing the word "equitable" with "equal" could prompt litigation and said, "equitable means fairness and equal means all that same size." The committee moved the Department of Education item through (an "auto pass" was recorded for the item as presented) while debate over related statutory language continued.

Committee business also included numerous technical approvals and procedural votes across departments (Administrative Services, Professional Licensure, Information Technology, community college and public-health items). Several items were explicitly left on hold for further work on fiscal numbers or were moved to other tracking sheets the committee will revisit later in the week.

The committee recessed several times for caucus and executive-session work and concluded the public meeting after returning from executive session.