04/13/2010 02:30 PM Senate FINANCE

SENATE BILL NO. 312                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
     "An Act providing for a reduction in the excise tax to                                                                     
     $34.50 for a passenger for each voyage on a commercial                                                                     
     passenger vessel; providing for a reduction in the                                                                         
     state excise tax imposed on a passenger on a                                                                               
     commercial passenger vessel by the amount of tax on a                                                                      
     passenger traveling on a commercial passenger vessel                                                                       
     imposed by a municipality that does not elect to                                                                           
     receive an appropriation of a portion of the proceeds                                                                      
     from the state tax; authorizing an appropriation from                                                                      
     the proceeds from the excise tax imposed on a                                                                              
     passenger on a commercial passenger vessel for state-                                                                      
     owned   infrastructure   to    properly   provide   for                                                                    
     commercial vessel or passenger visits; requiring a                                                                         
     municipality receiving funds appropriated from the                                                                         
     excise tax imposed on a passenger on a commercial                                                                          
     passenger vessel to use the funds to improve port and                                                                      
     harbor    facilities    and    other    services    and                                                                    
     infrastructure to properly provide for commercial                                                                          
     passenger vessel or passenger visits; limiting the                                                                         
     reduction for the excise tax imposed by a municipality                                                                     
     on a passenger on a commercial passenger vessel to                                                                         
     $17.25 a passenger for each voyage; requiring the                                                                          
     Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic                                                                            
     Development to prepare and submit a report on the                                                                          
     needs of communities to safely and efficiently host                                                                        
     passengers subject to the state tax imposed on a                                                                           
     passenger on a commercial passenger vessel, and to                                                                         
     summarize the extent to which appropriations from the                                                                      
     state tax have been used to defray the costs of                                                                            
     meeting those needs; eliminating the authority to                                                                          
     appropriate funds received from the excise tax imposed                                                                     
     on a passenger on a commercial passenger vessel to an                                                                      
     area of the state that is not one of the first five                                                                        
     ports of call in the state for a commercial passenger                                                                      
     vessel carrying a passenger subject to the state                                                                           
     excise tax imposed on a passenger of that vessel; and                                                                      
     providing for an effective date."                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                
SB 312 was scheduled but not heard.