Vander Linden Capitol Update – April 21, 2016
Rep. Guy Vander Linden (R)
April 21st, 2016
The 2016 Legislative Session is coming to an end and we are focused on the budget for these final days. This session has been both busy and productive and we have worked hard to do what’s best for Iowans. Because these are the final days, this will be the last newsletter that goes out this session. Thank you to all of you who have showed interest and support this session. As always feel free to contact me with any concerns you have in the following year.
Senate House Panel Pass/Approve Measure Extending Biofuel Retail Tax Credits
On Wednesday, April 13, 2016, the Iowa Senate considered and passed Senate File 2309 by a unanimous 49-aye vote. On Tuesday, April 19, 2016, the Iowa House Ways & Means Committee considered and amended SF 2309’s companion, House File 2175. The amendment adopted by the House Ways & Means Committee not only made HF 2175 as amended identical to Senate File 2309, but it reduced the House’s bill’s earlier fiscal note. As introduced the House bill would have impacted the FY 2016 budget by $1 million and $5.3 million in FY 2017 and $10.7 million in FY 2018 and the new Senate language lowered the fiscal impact of this bill to neutral for FY 2017 and $900,000 in FY 2018. The amendment added new language to the bill that provides a 1% variance waiver that will apply in circumstance of when B11 is inadvertently mixed with an insufficient amount of fuel grade biodiesel. It also decreased the motorfuel biodiesel tax credit for B5 to less than B11 diesel fuel from 4.5-cent per gallon to 3.5-cent per gallon and scaled back the new retail motor fuel biodiesel for B11 and higher blends from the initial proposal of 7-cents per gallon to 5.5 cents per gallon. The bill still proposes to extend the expiration date of four biofuel tax programs currently scheduled to expire on January 1, 2018, to a new sunset of January 1, 2025, including the three income tax credits and one sales and use tax refund for biodiesel production. The next step for this legislation is floor consideration of the bill by the House which may yet occur before the body adjourns in the upcoming week.
House Panel Approves UST and Renewable Fuels Bill
On Tuesday, April 19, 2016, the House Appropriation Committee considered, amended and passed House File 2381 that became House File 2464 by a unanimous 25-aye vote. The bill as approved by the Committee delays the repeal of the Environmental Protection Charge (the EPC also referred to as the diminution tax of 1-cent per gallon taxed largely from petroleum marketers) by six months that is current set by Code 424.19 to occur on June 30, 2016 and is moved December 31, 2016; repeals the existing Code provisions that provide for quarterly disbursement of $3.5-million ($14-million per year) from the statutory allocation fund to the underground storage tank fund on December 31, 2016; and repeals the existing Code provisions that provide for quarterly disbursement of $750,000 from Statutory Allocation fund to the Renewable Fuels Infrastructure fund (for a total of $3-million for FY 2017) on June 30, 2017. This legislation was instigated by the Governor’s office and the state Department of Transportation to deal with the matter that the state effort to cleanup petroleum contaminated underground storage tanks placed in the ground prior to 1990 is drawing to a close and the extensive current effort will likely diminish as clean-up effort continue. HF 2464 has a Senate companion Senate Study Bill 3167 that is in the Senate Appropriation Committee.
