Lengthy debate resulted in numerous amendments to Senate Bill 522 during Friday’s morning finance meeting.
In total, four amendments were adopted to the proposed legislation, which intends to create a special road repair fund for the state. Changes to the bill arose out of extensive debate in Thursday’s committee meeting, ultimately resulting in the bill being laid over until Friday morning’s meeting.
Continuing review of the legislation, multiple senators expressed confusion surrounding the bill which establishes a total of $110 million to be used in addressing the state’s current road conditions. If passed, the bill would establish a two year program that uses funding to help counties.
As stated in the bill, in order to have a road be repaired, counties must submit requests for certain road repairs and if accepted, money would then be allocated from the Department of Highways to one of ten districts within the state. After review by the districts, a creation of a priority list would then decide how funding is to be directed to a contractor within the county in question.
Concern over the use of contractors sparked much debate among Senators, specifically surrounding the potential liability that would result following a job being contracted. Despite the Department of Highways stating that they wouldn’t like to increase employment to address the potential repairs, Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, said that the increase in employment would potentially allow for the DOH to “stay on top of the state’s roads” following the end of the program.
Other members of the committee also raised caution regarding to the implementation of funding for the county’s repairs. Under the original language of the bill, the amount of funding would be determined by the total amount of mileage within the committee, in addition to 10 percent which would be allocated for each county to establish a baseline. Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, motioned to amend the legislation to allow for each county to received $1.5 million for repairs. Following discussion, members voted to adopt the senator’s amendment.
Members also adopted two other amendments from Stollings, in addition to an amendment from Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer.
Following consideration of the bill, the committee voted to report the amended committee substitute of Senate Bill 522 to the full Senate.
Senate Bill 472, which would exempt retirement incomes of certain uniformed services members from state income tax, was also reported to the body.
