Conference Committees Make Progress

About 50 bills are still being worked on in Conference Committees. These committees are made up of three members from each the House snd Senate.  They work out their differences or find compromises during their meetings.  Sometimes they are quick meetings, other times a committee may meet several times a day.
After 8 meetings, conference committee members finally reached a compromise on SB 2143 which addresses the senior mill levy match.  The proposal agreed upon raises the state match ftom 85% to 87.5%. The bill now goes to both chambers.
Late Tuesday, the conference committee meeting on HB 1176, the Gross Production Tax bill,  approved amendments. The GPT increase to oil counties remains at 30% as does the $112 million to non-oil counties. NDACo was also successful in maintaining fewer restrictions for how the road funding can be used.  The distribution in 1176 for non-oil did change so that 50% is distributed based on CMC miles and 50% based on the Upper Great Plains Transportation needs study.
We are closely involved in the work being done in conference committee on SB 2206 which deals with county social service funding.