Committee endorses amendment creating Capital Centennial Stewardship subaccount and reports bill out as amended

The capital committee adopted a striking amendment and reported Senate Bill 6,313 out of committee with a due-pass-as-amended recommendation.

Ingrid Lewis, staff to the committee, briefed members that SB 6,313 would create a Capital Centennial Stewardship Account. Representative Walsh sponsored a striking amendment that would create the stewardship account as a subaccount inside the existing Capital Building Construction Account and said the change was intended to address concerns raised during testimony and simplify implementation.

Representative Walsh described the change as “simplifying” and a way to use an existing account to achieve the bill’s goals; the chair and other members characterized it as an “elegant solution” that addressed committee concerns. The committee adopted the striking amendment (H3738-0.1) by voice vote.

After adoption of the striking amendment, the committee took a voice vote to report the substitute bill out of committee as due-passed-as-amended. Staff announced the tally as 16 yea, 0 nay, 3 excused and 0 absent.

Next steps: SB 6,313 was reported out of committee with a due-pass-as-amended recommendation; the committee noted a potential additional time block on March 11 but did not expect to need it.