Today with 28 ayes and 2 nays, SB 5 and SJR 5 as substituted were voted out of the Senate and will now head over to the House for further consideration. The bills will take some of the funding raised from sales taxes on motor vehicles and dedicate it towards state highways. SB 5 would take the first $2.5 billion in annual motor vehicle sales tax revenues and put it toward general revenue (GR). The next $2.5 billion would go to the state highway fund. Any amount of the $5 billion was to be split between GR and the highway fund, however; an adopted amendment changed that spit. The only adopted amendment, authored by Sen. Royce West, will take any revenue collected beyond $5 billion a year and dedicate 20% of the funds going to GR towards the Available School Fund with the intention of the funding going to a pay raise for teachers. SJR 5 would put the issue before the voters in 2016.
The bills now move over to the House side where they will be referred to a House committee for further consideration. More detail on the process of how a bill becomes a law, click here.
