"The Senate passed a budget that differs from the state Assembly's, resulting in the need for a conference committee to iron out the differences," Hauser, who's group is one of the main opponents of the proposal, told Wisconsin Ag Connection.
Earlier this month, the state assembly made changes to the provision in their budget by eliminating anti-pass-through language and capping the level of the assessment.
Meanwhile, Cooperative Network CEO Bill Oemichen said his group also opposes the tax. He says it "paints a bulls-eye on the backs of cooperative fuel retailers and their member-owners."
"Cooperative Network maintained that co-ops and their members would have been uniquely harmed by the tax because as non-profit businesses, they return net margins to their member-owners," Oemichen said in a statement cited by the publication. "The tax would have diminished or eliminated those margins, wiping out both the payments to members and the working capital co-ops plow back into growing their operations and Wisconsin's rural economy."
The initial proposal sought to tax the profits of the big oil companies, forbidding them from passing the fee on to retailers or consumers. But the two organizations both agree that the tax would most likely be legally challenged, costing Wisconsin consumers millions of dollars in increased taxes at the pump.
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