The 2019 Legislature is going on his eleventh day of meetings and this week’s topic has been the Medicaid Replacement Bill which has State Representative Carl R Albrecht and his fellow lawmakers busy mulling over the details.

“Senate Bill 96 that was passed out of the Senate earlier in the week along party lines that came to a House Committee yesterday passed out although there were some Republicans including the Chair of the Committee and also the House Sponsor that voted no. So, it will be interesting to see how it goes on the house floor and I think it’s going to hit the floor probably tomorrow,” explained Representative Albrecht. This has been the one bill so far that has garnered several talks from both sides of the aisle on all margins of the issue.

Another popular item on the hill is the possibility of lowering the sales tax which has not only been mentioned on the floor but was also stated in the Governor’s State of the State Address. “The Revenue and Tax Committees is working on that. There’re not any details that have been brought to our caucus or majority caucus yet. But there will probably be a reduction in sales tax and income tax,” said Representative Albrecht. Although nothing has been presented at this time there is a proposal to tax services which Albrecht is not in favor of as he said it could hurt smaller business owners.

There will be an opportunity for Albrecht to present House Bill 78 to the Natural Resource Committee on Friday plus another bill he has vested time in drafting. “My Rural Jobs Bill with the incentive cap that I raised this past House Committee, house floor and is on the way to the Senate Committee. I have another Rural Jobs Bill that is about to be released hopefully by the end of this week and will be numbered and out. It’s one of my priorities so it should move along quite fast,” stated Representative Albrecht.