A member of the conference committee raised Senate Bill 2093, which would allow surviving spouses of certain law-enforcement officers to exclude a related income amount from taxable income. A committee member described the measure as extending an existing law-enforcement income exclusion to surviving spouses.

At the meeting a committee speaker summarized the proposal: "it excludes it from income, so it's not really a credit ... This extends that benefit to the surviving spouse," and said the exclusion would allow the surviving spouse to exclude that amount from taxable income. Committee members said they expected the number of cases to be small and that the appropriation impact would likely be limited.

The conference committee did not act on SB 2093 at the meeting; members requested staff to place the item on a future agenda so members could review the draft language and consider whether to attach it to the current tax-package work.

Next steps: staff will schedule a future discussion on Senate Bill 2093 and provide the committee with the bill language and potential fiscal impact before the next meeting.