701-566-9300Tiling bills look like they are about to be resolved as the chairman of the House Ag committee has decided to concur with the Senate treatment of HB1390. They will then kill SB2263 on the House floor. Amongst the major differences between 1390 and current law is that Water Resource District board members must undergo a course on water management each of their 3 year terms, a drainage coefficient of 3/8 inch or less, installation on less than 80 acres still does not need a permit, WRDs are limited to charging $150 for a permit, a board may not deny a permit more than 60 days after receipt of the completed application. An interim study of nutrient management is suggested but not required.
HB1339, the bill about the percentage of people in a drain assessment district needed to appeal the project. Current law is 25 percent, the bill was 0 percent. The Senate came in with 25 percent, the House with 15 percent. I predicted in my last blog that it would probably end up at 20 percent. You can all see how my brilliant foresight got there and indeed that is what happened in committee this morning, so that will be the law.
Quick Take has been modified as you may have read, but we thought that the two houses had concurred and it was a done deal. Today we had the first Conference Committee on it and little was accomplished. The members were given some information to go through and some questions to answer before the next meeting.
SB2270 affects you directly if you live anywhere along the Canal issuing out of Lake Audubon. With 65,000 or so acres that are irrigable but not irrigated near there, this bill and the Water Commission’s $325,000 appropriation for the “Marker 15” area along the canal hope to help. They agreed on amendments about notices in the paper and helping with loans.
And after lolling about on the Calendar for a week or so, HB1126, the Public Service Commission elevator inspection/insolvency bill passed the Senate with electronic messaging of purchases and sales now allowed and admissible with that study on testing vom, rust and falling numbers.
