Future of Severance Taxes & Water Funding Task Force

Removed 'Appropriations' from the list of Senate and House committees associated with the bill.

Removed 'and Water Funding' from the bill title and summary, narrowing the stated focus to just the task force creation.

Changed the document status from 'Revised' (including all amendments) to 'PREAMENDED' (unofficial version with committee amendments not yet adopted).

Added new text regarding task force member appointments, including a minority leader appointee, a county commissioner, and an elected municipal official from an impacted area.

Updated the revision status header from 'Rerevised' to 'Revised' and adjusted the description of amendments adopted in the Second House.

Removed the detailed list of House sponsors, retaining only the lead sponsors McCormick and Martinez.

Added a new commission member category for a representative of an environmental advocacy organization appointed by the Speaker of the House.

Added a new commission member category for a representative of the oil and gas industry with experience in severance tax issues, appointed by the Senate Minority Leader.

Added a new commission member category for a representative of the agriculture industry with experience in the intersection of agriculture, water projects, and the oil and gas industry.

The bill structure was reorganized to place the legislative declaration (Section 1) at the beginning of the document, following standard legislative formatting conventions for the Second House reading.

The bill header and sponsorship information were updated to reflect the current reading status, including committee assignments and revision dates.

Page numbering and formatting markers were updated to reflect the new document structure, with page numbers now appearing at the bottom of sections rather than inline.

Removed a note about the bill being prepared for signatures and added a note about checking legislative status, which are administrative rather than policy changes.

Corrected capitalization and formatting inconsistencies throughout the document, such as changing 'THIRD PARTY' to 'third party' and fixing spacing issues.

Fixed a typo in Section 1(a) where 'flinding' was corrected to 'funding'.

Corrected a date reference in Section 3 from 'January 1, 2026 2027' to remove the duplicate year, though the substantive tax credit provisions remain unchanged.

Added new task force members including an environmental advocacy representative, an oil and gas industry representative, a water conservation district representative, an agriculture industry representative, and an elected municipal official.

Removed the county commissioner seat from the task force membership.

Changed the draft report submission deadline from January 15, 2026 to no later than January 15, 2026, and clarified the final report submission deadline as July 15, 2026.

Explicitly stated that the task force shall be funded solely with money from the severance tax perpetual base fund.

Added clear definitions for 'committee', 'task force', and 'third party' within the statute.

Added requirement that all task force meetings must be open to the public and include an opportunity for public testimony.

Added a repeal provision stating the section will be repealed effective December 31, 2026.

Added two new Senate sponsors: Amabile and Pelton R.

Updated header to indicate this is the reengrossed version with all House of Introduction amendments included.

Added a note explaining that the current summary applies to the unamended version and that a new summary will be available for the reengrossed version.

Removed text describing a task force purpose related to consulting on the future of severance taxes and water funding, indicating this section was deleted or replaced.

Added a new legislative declaration section explaining the need to study severance tax revenue management and water funding sustainability.

Changed the task force purpose to explicitly include avoiding future budget backfilling and repaying previously used severance tax revenue.

Modified the appointment authority for the oil and gas industry representative from the Senate Minority Leader to the House Speaker.

Modified the appointment authority for the agriculture industry representative from the Senate Minority Leader to the House Speaker.

Changed the oil and gas industry representative requirement from general experience to specifically requiring experience in severance tax issues.

Modified the agriculture industry representative requirement to require experience in the intersection of agriculture, water projects, and oil and gas industries.

Changed the municipal official appointment authority from the Governor to the Governor, but added a requirement that the official must be from a community socially or economically impacted by oil and gas operations.