House Appropriations Committee advances miscellaneous tax bill after fiscal-note review

The House Appropriations Committee on March 20 voted to advance H.933, a miscellaneous tax bill the panel had reviewed previously, after a focused presentation on the bill's fiscal note.

Patrick Turchin of the Joint Fiscal Office told the committee updated modeling showed federal conformity would have produced "roughly a $20,000,000 shortfall in fiscal year 26, raising to about $35,000,000 in fiscal year 27," and that adjustments adopted in Ways and Means produced a roughly $10 million net increase across the two-year window. "The fiscal note is the best way to take a look at it," the chair said as staff walked members through the blue-box graphics in the note.

Committee discussion centered on percentage changes to rates and provisions affecting meals-and-rooms and purchase-and-use taxes. Members and staff said the committee preferred structural changes over one-off fixes. Legislative counsel summarized the fiscal-note graphics and said the various moving pieces were summarized at the top of the note as an "about nine-ish million dollar" impact the committee had used in the budget discussions.

After brief discussion the chair called for a motion to approve H.933 as introduced. The motion was seconded and the clerk conducted a roll-call vote; the committee approved reporting the bill out of committee (committee vote recorded as unanimous in committee proceedings).

The committee also noted that details from the measure and related adjustments will be reflected in the larger appropriations work later in the day.