The Senate Revenue and Affairs Committee met Monday to consider the eleven tax bills approved by the full House on May 7th. It quickly became apparent that Chairman Neil Riser had a strategy for dealing with them: just move them along.
“Any objection? Hearing none, that bill will be reported favorable. Next bill,” Riser steadily announced.
No amendments were offered for any of the revenue-raising bills, and while numerous people put in cards either supporting or objecting to the bills, public testimony was limited.
These bills also face hearings before the Senate Finance Committee, prompting Baton Rouge Senator Sharon Weston-Broome to observe, “It appears that people are forfeiting their opportunity to speak today, to wait for Senate Finance.”
All eleven bills advanced without any alterations, and here’s why:
There are still a couple of tax bills the full House has not yet heard, and the Senate leadership wants the House to move those measures this week. In addition, the full House is set to debate the main budget bill, HB 1, on Thursday. Any overt move by the Senate to change what the House has already done could mess some or all of that up.
New Orleans Senator J.P. Morrell assured those attending the Revenue and Fiscal Affairs meeting that Monday’s results were not how the story would end.
“Though you’ve seen the posture of how bills are leaving this committee today, that does not mean that that will be their final disposition,” Morrell said.
“We’re just as uncomfortable about this as you are,” Benton Senator Robert Adley told the public in attendance at the meeting. “And hopefully when they go through Finance, they’ll figure the best way to work through it.”
Meanwhile, Senate Finance was getting an update on the current posture of the budget bill. Members of that committee offered some hints of what they might be planning, once the House has made all its moves this week.
“What if we direct the Department of Revenue to cap the movie credits at a hundred million for 2015?” Baton Rouge Senator Bodi White asked. “That would save us approximately a hundred million for Fiscal Year 16?”
“At least a hundred million,” Legislative fiscal analyst Greg Albrecht replied.
The maneuvering continues…