The Legislature is moving in to the final phase of session with opposite House committee cut off Friday. Non-budget bills must have passed out of the opposite chamber policy committee or they are dead for this session. In other words House bills must pass out of Senate policy committee and vice verse.
Both the House and Senate presented versions of the General Fund and Transportation budgets. They will pass these versions out of their respective chambers and then final negotiations between the two chambers will proceed, hopefully concluding with a final budget deal by March 13. The Legislature will spend most of next week on the Floor passing opposite chamber bills and negotiating final concurrence language on any disputed legislation.
Momentum around solar issues associated with the incentive program and system leasing (HB 1301/ HB 2176) appear to have stalled and it does not look like any further Legislative activity will occur on this issue.
The High Tech RD tax incentives remain alive however the Senate proposed narrowing the program to just companies with less than $50 million in revenue. This has caused enormous controversy and could cause the entire program to die this session.
Prepared by Boswell Consulting