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Committee hears bill to redirect coal-trust interest to highway account and trooper pay
Summary
House Bill 615 would direct roughly $20 million a year in coal severance trust interest — $2 million to the Department of Justice for trooper retention and the remainder to the Highway State Special Revenue Account (HESRA) — and extend several smaller coal-interest allocations through mid-2029. Committee members asked for fiscal scenarios and raised concerns about permanently constraining future budgeting.
At a House Taxation Committee hearing, Rep. Jerry Schillinger introduced House Bill 615, saying the proposal would direct about $20,000,000 in annual interest from the coal severance tax permanent fund away from the general fund and into transportation and public-safety uses. "So house bill 6 15 is a simple $20,000,000 bill," Schillinger told the committee, and "2,000,000 will go to the Department of Justice to help retain troopers."
The legislation would direct the remainder of that interest to the Highway State Special Revenue Account (HESRA) at the Department of Transportation, which Schillinger and analysts said is used for federal match, contractor payments and nearly all highway maintenance. Schillinger and fiscal staff distributed graphs showing projected HESRA balances with and without added coal-interest distributions.
The bill also extends a set of existing coal-trust interest appropriations that were scheduled to sunset in 2027 through June 30, 2029. Those line items include small allocations for agriculture and commerce programs (for example, identified…
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