Ways and Means approves multi-year revenue estimates, records four committee decisions in executive session

The House Ways and Means Committee met in a work session to review and adopt multi-year revenue estimates and to consider several bills in executive session. Committee members discussed Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) analyses, transfers to municipal and school building accounts, and refund patterns before approving a set of estimates the committee plans to package into a resolution.

The committee spent the morning and early afternoon reviewing DRA spreadsheets that present gross revenue, municipal transfers and net amounts for the general fund and the education trust fund. DRA staff member Chris walked members through the worksheets and the logic for backing out municipal transfers and school building aid from gross meals-and-rooms receipts, and provided a printout of an email from the state insurance commissioner. "The short answer is yes and yes to both of those questions," Chris said when summarizing the insurance department's response about how disasters and premiums are factored into their estimates.

Why it matters: the adopted estimates drive the fiscal assumptions in the upcoming budget resolution and determine the amounts available to the general fund, the Education Trust Fund and dedicated accounts such as the Affordable Housing Fund. The committee’s choices—whether to use DRA low estimates, highs, or committee averages—affect budget planning for the next two fiscal years.

Most important actions and figures - Insurance tax: Members accepted DRA’s column F insurance-tax estimates after reviewing a written response from the insurance commissioner; the committee approved the estimates by voice vote (recorded in-session: 16–0 in favor). Members were asked to focus on the gross receipts line for meals and rooms when computing transfer adjustments.

- Utility property tax: Committee members debated DRA’s high/low range and assessment timing, including potential reductions tied to renewable-energy property changes and infrastructure cycles. The committee elected to use the average of DRA’s presented high/low for FY25–27 and then formally approved the numbers that staff recorded as $45,200,000 (FY25), $45,900,000 (FY26) and $46,600,000 (FY27).

- Communications tax, interest & dividends, tobacco, real estate transfer and meals & rooms: After discussion about long-term trends (for example, the shift from copper landlines to VOIP and mobile data for communications; refund and overpayment patterns for business taxes), the committee generally chose averages or DRA-provided numbers. For meals and rooms the committee used gross averages provided by DRA ($477.1 million for FY25; $493.9 million for FY26; $511.3 million for FY27) and accepted the derived municipal and school-building splits that produce the net revenue estimates for the general and education trust funds.

- Business taxes: Members reviewed a DRA two-sided business-tax analysis and an accompanying refund analysis. The committee discussed historically high carryforward credits and recent refund activity; taking a conservative approach, members approved the set of business-tax multipliers the committee adopted for the estimates cycle (committee-noted rounded values used for FY25–27: 1.03, 1.06, 1.10 respectively).

Discussion context and key concerns Committee members repeatedly returned to two persistent uncertainties: the scale and timing of refunds or credit carryforwards (which affect cash in the near term) and the appropriate growth assumptions for FY26–27. Several members urged caution on optimistic growth assumptions because of the short time horizon to the next fiscal year and continued elevated refund activity. Others urged allowances for likely growth should national and regional conditions improve.

Executive session votes After finishing revenue estimates, the committee went into executive session and recorded formal committee actions on four bills: - HB 596 (reporting requirements for entities that collect meals & rooms taxes): motion to ITL (Inexpedient To Legislate) carried; committee-recorded vote 16–4 in favor of ITL. Motion: presented and moved by Representative Ors; seconded by Representative Doucette. Outcome: ITL.

- HB 635 (taxation of nonprofit entities related to settlement of immigrants): motion to retain in committee passed 11–9. Motion: moved by Representative O’Leary; second by Representative Soddy. Outcome: retained in committee for further work.

- HB 530 (increase transfer from real estate transfer tax to the Affordable Housing Fund from $5 million to $10 million): motion to ITL carried 11–9. Motion: moved by Representative Murphy; seconded by Representative Tierney. Outcome: ITL.

- HB 591 (expand weekend keno hours): motion to OTP (ought to pass) carried 16–4. Motion: moved by Representative Ford; second by Representative Almi. Outcome: OTP.

What the committee asked DRA to do next Members asked DRA to prepare a clean worksheet that shows the gross-to-net splits for meals & rooms and the general fund/education trust fund allocations. The chair asked DRA to produce a resolution draft based on the adopted numbers so the committee can consider the resolution at a planned work session the following week; the chair also announced a backup meeting day in case of weather or scheduling conflicts.

Quotes - Chair (opening the meeting): "On the time being 10:04, we'll get going on our work session on, revenue estimates." (committee opening) - Chris, DRA: "The short answer is yes and yes to both of those questions." (summarizing the insurance commissioner’s email about how premiums and disaster losses are treated)

Ending Committee leadership said the DRA would provide a final worksheet and a draft resolution for the committee to consider at a scheduled work session the next week. That resolution, if approved by the committee, would be prepared for the full-body calendar in early March. No final budget or legislative changes were adopted at the meeting; the actions recorded will be folded into the committee’s resolution-writing and subsequent calendar work.