State lawmakers have left the Capitol for the night.
House and Senate budget negotiators wrapped up negotiations more than two hours ahead of the midnight deadline.
Lawmakers reconvened around 9:30 to talk about three bills and they passed those three bills within ten minutes.
These are the revenue generating bills that will help close the the projected $1.3B two-year deficit.
The committee lawmakers passed the TAT bill (SB1186) — agreeing to cap the counties share of the hotel room tax at $93M. That’s a compromise between the Senate and House versions.
The second bill they passed was the pension bill (SB570), which has several parts to it. They actually took out the part regarding taxing pensions of retired people with higher incomes, but kept the part that deals with lowering state tax deductions.
And the third bill they discussed and passed has to do with raising the car rental surcharge (HB1039) so that $60M of the money raised will go into the state’s general fund.
One bill they passed earlier tonight will take money from the hurricane fund and put it into the general fund.
Bills that didn’t get discussed are basically dead.
Next week both chambers will vote to make a final approval since the legislative session ends next week.
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
