Committee advances SB1966 and SB80 out of committee

A legislative committee voted to advance two bills out of committee, moving SB1966 with an amendment and sending SB80 to the next stage with unanimous votes.

The committee adopted a pending committee substitute (PCS) for SB1966 and a committee member said an amendment was added “to include the houses, memorial roads, and bridges,” attributing the change to a miscommunication between the House and Senate. The motion to adopt the PCS and amendment was adopted and the committee reported the bill out by a voice vote recorded as 9 ayes, 0 nays.

Representative Clay Stairs, the sponsor of SB80, described his bill as “a cleanup bill, simply removing a handful of turnpikes that have been on the books for the last 30, 40, 50 years, that have been deemed unnecessary at this time.” Stairs said the measure had undergone “a number of revisions” to reach a compromise and moved for passage. The committee recorded the vote as 11 ayes, 0 nays and declared SB80 out of committee.

The chair opened and closed floor discussion on both measures without extended debate. Roll‑call entries listed individual ‘aye’ responses for members during the proceedings. No formal objections or recorded no votes were made during the session.

Both bills were sent out of committee for further consideration; the committee did not take additional action at the meeting on amendments beyond adopting the PCS for SB1966. The chair then introduced a brief presentation from the Department of Commerce before adjourning.