House, Senate negotiators work for deal on budget, property tax

Lawmakers begin meeting today to try to find compromise on the two bills

By JOHN O’CONNOR

johnoconnor@thestate.com

A handpicked group of House and Senate members today begins a key week of negotiations on the state budget and property tax reform — and a race to avoid a threat by House leaders to stretch the session past its June 1 end.

The two bills have become intertwined as the session’s largest issue after House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, said the House would not approve a budget unless the Senate also approved “substantive” property tax relief.

Two six-member conference committees, each with three members from the House and three from the Senate, could begin discussing the bills this week.

Harrell would not say how much tax relief the House would find acceptable, but has said the Senate’s local option plan does not do enough.

“We’re still committed to getting property tax relief,” Harrell said. “The two bills are so different that it’s difficult to combine the pieces to find a compromise.”

That a compromise would be difficult was made clear when the Senate spent more than three weeks debating the bill. Many in the Senate are convinced no deal is possible and hope they can convince the House that reassessment reform could solve much of the problem.

Harrell said the House could amend the tax bill today or Wednesday to give more options. Under legislative rules, the conference committee can only use proposals within the two bills to draft a compromise.

While House leadership might be willing to hold out for tax relief, some rank-and-file members are pushing for a smaller compromise with the Senate.

“I think we need, so to speak, a third version,” said Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Richland, who helped shepherd the tax bill through the House. Any compromise, Cotty said, should be easy to understand and implement.

The Senate’s president pro tem holds out hope for a deal.

“This way we’ve got a chance,” said Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, who thinks he knows how much tax relief the House might accept. “This keeps it alive.”

While property tax has been a difficult issue to resolve all session, the House added a new wrinkle to the debate over the budget last week by adding a $100 million, three-month suspension of the state’s 16.8-cent gas tax.

The gas tax plan is part of hundreds of millions of dollars in differences between the House and Senate budgets, and Senate leaders, such as Finance Committee chairman Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, are skeptical.

The House sent the budget back to the Senate last week, so the conference committee could begin meeting Wednesday or Thursday.

Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.