The last two viable bills for filling the state budget holes are headed back to the Senate, but with much smaller fiscal impact than their original versions.
SB 10 by Rick Ward had originally required businesses to choose between taking the industrial tax exemption or the inventory tax credit. It was amended in House Ways and Means this morning.
“If you receive the Industrial Tax Exemption, then you can receive the inventory tax credit, but only as a non-refundable tax credit,” Sen. Ward said of the amendment.
Rep. Stephanie Hilferty wanted to know about the budget impact.
“Do we have any idea what this will do to the fiscal note, with this amendment?” she asked.
“I think the current fiscal note stands at $68-million. It would be less ten percent of that,” Ward stated.
The bill started at $146-million; now it’s down to $57-million – but it is still moving. So is SB 6, which now has a fiscal note of $13-million, rather than $50-million.
It also deals with the inventory tax credit, restoring full refundability to small businesses, but capping the credit at one million dollars for the largest industries.
“It’s an effort to try and redress an issue for our small businesses, at the expense of some of our larger ones -- and I fully acknowledge that,” the bill’s author, Sen. J.P. Morrell said. “But it’s beyond doubt; it’s an absolute fact that the largest companies in our state pay no tax, and in some instances we refund them money over their tax liability.”
Bob Bauman, a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry, opposed the bill.
“It’s the biggest growing tax credit you have, and something has to be done; I certainly agree,” Bauman told the committee. “But this is not a subsidy to business. It’s a subsidy to local government.”
And early this afternoon, the full House approved both bills.