The Senate agriculture committee took steps to throw the state’s struggling sawmill industry a lifeline last week, approving a bill that would slash the mills’ property tax rate by nearly two-thirds.
House Bill 287 would lower the property tax rate for sawmills from 32 percent to 12 percent.
Rep. David Day, R-Dixon, said sawmills are suffering from the national housing construction downturn, cutting fewer logs and operating with skeleton crews.
Day said the proposed tax break wouldn’t be a bailout, but “it’s one that would help a struggling industry.”
Nobody testified against the bill, which passed the House 151-8 on Feb. 26. It now needs approval of the full Senate.
Sen. Dan Clemens, a Marshfield Republican and chairman of the committee, said the legislation was needed. He had the committee vote it out shortly after a hearing, even though most bills have to wait a week after a hearing to get a debate.
Shannon Cooper, a lobbyist for the Missouri Forest Products Association, said the industry is experiencing a “horrendous” economic climate and could use some tax relief.
Since the legislative session began in January, Cooper said, 44 sawmills across the state have been shuttered. In many cases, sawmills are the biggest employers in small towns, Cooper said, especially in the Ozarks.
“There’s not a lot of other economic opportunity down in these areas,” Cooper said.