After weeks of discussion and testimony, the Legislature’s Taxation Committee voted in support of a tax credit for Bath Iron Works worth up to $60 million over 20 years.

As amended, the credit is split in two, with each $30 million infusion dependent on separate $100 million investments in the shipyard. To be eligible for the full $60 million tax credit, the company will have to invest a total of $200 million in the shipyard.

The committee also decided to raise the base employment level required to 5,500, just shy of what BIW says its current employment is — 5,600.

A final amendment from Rep. Gay Grant, D-Gardiner, eliminated the limitation that the shipyard can only fall below the employment threshold of 5,500 twice in the 20-year period. Instead, the committee chose to allow the shipyard to receive a lower credit at a decelerated rate as employment drops, and an accelerated rate if employment is significantly above 5,500. If employment drops below 4,000 full-time employees, the shipyard would receive no credit.

The text of the amendment was not immediately available online.

In an 8-2 vote, the committee reported the bill ought to pass as amended.

A minority of the committee continued in opposition to the bill to the very end, pointing to the lack of evidence that BIW needs the proposed credit.

“I still have not had answers to my questions that I’ve asked numerous times of the company relating to basic financial information,” said Sen. Justin Chennette, D-York. “And moreover, if your parent company is making $3 billion in profits, you’re not the one who needs a tax break.”

“After listening to weeks of testimony and asking many questions, I am still not convinced that this $60 million infusion of taxpayer money is necessary or advisable at this time,” added Rep. Janice Cooper, D-Yarmouth. “No compelling case has been made that BIW needs it at this time.”

Still, Chennette noted that the committee’s work had improved the bill with additional reporting requirements.

“I think the bill that we’re ending up with increases accountability and protections for taxpayers, which I think is incredibly important,” added Chennette.

“This committee has worked very hard in the last several sessions to make tax policy better,” said Rep. Denise Tepler, D-Topsham. “That’s one of the reasons why we spent so much time on this credit and designing it carefully so we can assess that it’s working to help keep jobs in Bath, Maine.”

Rep. Ryan Tipping, D-Orono, who co-chairs the committee, acknowledged that the bill was not good tax policy, calling it a “race to the bottom” with Mississippi, who invests millions of dollars in BIW’s competitor, Huntington Ingalls. But he stated that he would ultimately support the proposal due to the changes that had been made.

“I’m extremely uncomfortable moving forward with a long-term bill … (but) I chose to try and make the bill the best that it possibly can be,” said Tipping. “I will be supporting the bill, but I have serious reservations.”

For others on the committee, the tax credit was a simple matter of saving good paying manufacturing jobs in Maine.

“To me, this is an investment — an investment in the workers of the state of Maine,” said Rep. Stephen S. Stanley, D-Medway. “Because I’ll tell ya, without the workers you have nothing. Without investment, we have nothing.”

“Bath is the winner with this, because half of that money is going to be equipment that’s going to be taxed,” said cochair Sen. Dana Dow, R-Lincoln. “Lost in the discussion a lot of times was this $200 million possible that’s going to get invested in the community.”

The bill now goes to the full Legislature for further deliberation.

nstrout@timesrecord.com