The House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Feb. 14 adopted amendment 1 and gave a favorable recommendation to first substitute SB 27, a bill sponsored by Senator Harper that reorganizes motor vehicle–related statutory language, clarifies definitions and specifies destination funds for various earmarked fees.

Senator Harper told the committee the measure is largely housekeeping: it reorganizes and clarifies existing motor vehicle code provisions, updates definitions to explicitly include certain vehicles (for example, all-terrain vehicles and street-legal vehicles) and clarifies how fees collected for motorboat registration and other items are allocated to Department of Natural Resources accounts such as the water conservation fund and wastewater/drinking water loan funds.

Committee members emphasized that SB 27 does not increase rates or create new permanent fiscal obligations. Senator Harper and staff said the fiscal note is essentially revenue neutral, with only small one-time general-fund adjustments (the transcript records a one-time general-fund entry of $1,200 and an offsetting $1,200) and inflationary fee adjustments that reflect existing automatic indexing.

Notable policy and operational changes mentioned

- Earmarks and fund destinations: The bill reorganizes statute so the destination of collected fees (for water resources, wastewater loan funds, drinking water loan funds and water-rights programs) is explicit in the code.

- Registrations and definitions: The statute is clarified to include all-terrain and street-legal vehicles and to clarify how motorboat registration may be withdrawn for intentionally false registration information.

- Personal vehicle fleet registration: The substitute adds new code permitting group/annual registration for a personal fleet in some circumstances — a new option modeled on commercial grouping that some committee members welcomed as administrative relief.

Committee action and outcome

Representative Lisonbee moved adoption of amendment number 1; the committee adopted the amendment unanimously. The committee then voted to pass SB 27 (first substitute as amended) with a favorable recommendation; the chair recorded unanimous approval.

Questions from members and clarifications

Committee members asked whether any percentages or earmarks were increased; sponsors and staff replied that the sub was intended to preserve revenue neutrality and that one or two percentages were corrected in the substitute to ensure neutrality. Members also asked whether this bill addressed out-of-state trailer registrations; sponsors said that is handled in a different bill (Senate Bill 52).

Votes at a glance

- Motion to adopt amendment 1 to SB 27 (first substitute) — mover: Representative Lisonbee — outcome: adopted unanimously.
- Motion to pass SB 27 (first substitute as amended) with a favorable recommendation — mover: Representative Lisonbee (motion from floor) — outcome: passed unanimously.

Ending

Committee members described SB 27 as a helpful clean-up that makes statutory allocations clearer and eases some registration burdens. Because sponsors emphasized the bill’s technical and revenue-neutral intent, members expressed broad support and advanced the bill out of committee.