Committee creates subcommittee to study potential tax credit for households served by private water utilities

The House Ways and Means Committee on April 27 approved House Resolution 118 to create a legislative subcommittee to study the potential establishment of a state income tax credit for certain water-utility customers.

Representative Wright, sponsor of HR 118, told the committee the subcommittee would examine whether a state tax credit could mitigate costs for households served by private water systems that have faced brown water and manganese problems in older developments in the Florida parishes. "What we were doing here is create a little subcommittee, that would take a look at the potential for a state income tax credit for certain customers," Wright said.

Wright described a range of possible approaches and repeatedly said the idea was exploratory. As an illustrative example he mentioned "maybe a 5 to 10 year, maybe it's, $2.50 per household for a 10 year period of time," emphasizing that precise figures would require further study. He also suggested the committee could explore whether water-sector federal funds might be reopened to address system upgrades.

Members pressed Wright on fiscal and policy trade-offs. Representative Billings asked whether a tax credit would reduce state revenue and whether the state had capacity to subsidize higher utility rates. Representative Farmer cautioned that a customer tax credit would provide relief for bills but would not itself repair distribution systems that cause brown water; Farmer said the proposal is a "band-aid" if underlying infrastructure is not fixed.

Wright estimated, without firm data, that initial affected households in one area could number "2,500, 3,000" and that broader inclusion of other areas could raise the total into the low thousands or possibly up to about 10,000; he emphasized those figures were unconfirmed and that the subcommittee would gather testimony from the Public Service Commission, local health officials, companies and residents to refine counts. Chairman Bakula offered an illustrative fiscal example, saying that if 50,000 households qualified, a fiscal note could be about $12.5 million per year, to show scale rather than endorse that figure as a proposal.

Representative Jackson moved to report the resolution favorably; with no objection, Chairman Bakula announced HR 118 would be reported favorably. The resolution directs the legislature to form a subcommittee composed of House members (three from Ways and Means and other members) to hold hearings and gather information; no specific tax-credit language or automatic triggers to create a credit were adopted in committee on April 27.

The subcommittee is expected to invite agency staff, regulated companies and affected residents for testimony as it develops options.