I'm including a short video message if you want to get the main point of this week's message.
But for those who like to read and browse the list...here goes:
Last week was a deadline week at the Capitol. You may recall at the beginning of the session there were over 2,000 bills filed! Well, as usual, with this first deadline there are now only about a 1,000 left. You see, if a bill is not heard and voted out of a committee in its house of origin, then the bill is done for the year.
So, the good news is our Registration bill was not only heard, but overwhelmingly passed out of committee. By a vote of 7-1 our Registration bill - HB 1828 - passed the House Business, Labor and Retirement Laws Committee. It now goes to a vote on the House floor sometime in the next two weeks. You know what that means...yes, an ACTION ALERT will be coming soon. We will all need to be involved if we wish our bill to pass.
Today - Monday, March 2 -- the House is scheduled to take up HB 1775. This bill will create a new severance tax on aggregates. It would require a vote of the county that wants to raise the tax. But the bottom line is that would increase the cost of aggregates - the material that is used for concrete and sheetrock. We haven't seen the need to raise taxes on this commodity.
The so-called budget shortfall is the focus of the legislature this session. Thus all tax credits are in the bulls-eye. We are watching all the various bills dealing with tax credits and will keep you apprised of any action we need to take.
As usual, the complete list of all the bills we are tracking is available by clicking here.
