Brief ⁽¹⁾

HB 2048 would amend a section of law which established the Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative. Specifically, the bill would amend the definition of the term "riparian buffer" to extend the maximum width of the qualifying buffer from 150 feet to 180 feet.

Background

The bill was requested by the Executive Director of the State Conservation Commission. At the hearing on the bill, the Executive Director indicated that current law allows riparian buffer strips up to a maximum of 150 feet which are enrolled in the federal government's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to be taxed as grassland or wasteland. The Director indicated that last year the United States Department of Agriculture modified the CRP rules to increase the maximum width for riparian forest buffer strips to 180 feet. As a result, the state tax incentives offered under the Buffer Initiative are not in direct alignment with the CRP rules. The Director stated the bill would only affect buffer strips planted to trees and would impact only 230 acres of the approximately 3,000 acres enrolled in the Buffer Initiative. No other conferees appeared on the bill.

The fiscal note states that the State Conservation Commission indicated that there would be no fiscal impact to the state from the passage of the bill and that there would be a reduction in local property tax revenues by expanding the size of the buffers, but that the reduction is assumed to be negligible.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi