AMESTOY CONSULTING, LLC
Phone/Fax
406-443-2370
2007
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
WEEK
SIXTEEN
(April 15,
2007 – April 21, 2007)
During Week Sixteen of the 2007 Legislative Session,
I monitored the following activities of the Legislature.
HB 533: "AN ACT INCREASING THE COAL SEVERANCE TAX
ALLOCATION TO THE OIL, GAS, AND COAL NATURAL RESOURCE ACCOUNT; AMENDING SECTION
15-35-108, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND AN APPLICABILITY
DATE."
As originally proposed, this legislation would have
increased the funding to the Oil, Gas, and Coal Natural Resource Account from
2.9% to 19.0%. These funds originate
from the Coal Severance Tax and are to be used to offset coal mining and coal
development related impacts to the coal impacted counties. These funds are made available through grants
through the Coal Board. The difference
between the proposed 19.0% and the existing rate of 2.9%, 16.1%, is currently
allocated to the General Fund. Please
note that 50% of the taxes collected by the Coal Severance Tax are allocated to
the Coal Tax Trust Fund. The other 50%
are allocated to other accounts/programs.
The Oil, Gas, and Coal Natural Resource Account is one of those
accounts. Other accounts are: the
Long-Range Building Program; basic library services and the Growth Through
Agriculture Program; parks acquisition or management; renewable resource loan
debt service fund; and the protection of works of art in the capitol and for
other cultural or aesthetic projects. Due to disagreements in the House and the
Senate about the percentage that should be assigned to this program (the
percentages considered were 19%, 16% and 3.5%) this proposed legislation was
assigned to a Conference Committee to address this issue. As a result of the
Conference Committee’s action, the final percentage agreed upon was 10%, which
equates to an increase of 7.1%. This will provide an additional estimate of
$2.6 million annually in grants for impacts in areas impacted by coal mining. I
monitored this legislative action.
Other Legislative Activities:
There were no other legislative
activities that I participated in during this week.