The Kansas Legislature will have its say on possible financing of ECO2’s efforts to buy industrial and open space land in Douglas County.

House Bill 2828, introduced Monday by the Taxation Committee, would give the Douglas County Commission authority to conduct an election on a quarter-cent sales tax only to acquire and develop such land.

But members of ECO2, who have been hamstrung over how the money would be distributed, said introduction of the bill doesn’t mean that controversy was settled.

“The next couple of weeks will be telling,” said Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones, a member of ECO2, a task force set up by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “It’s still up in the air.”

It also doesn’t mean the committee has settled on the sales tax as the funding mechanism. Although it initially recommended the tax, group members said last week that they want to rethink the sales tax component.

“We’re still considering all the financing possibilities,” ECO2 Chair Kelvin Heck said Tuesday night.

But because Douglas County is already levying the maximum 1 percent sales tax allowed by state law, special dispensation is needed from the Legislature.

And if ECO2 decides to press for a vote on the matter this fall, the authority must be procured before the Legislature ends its session in the spring.

“Given the timing of the Legislature, this was something we had to do now,” Heck said.

The bill says the tax would be retired no later than 20 years after it is first collected. None of it would be distributed to cities within Douglas County, unlike the current county sales taxes.

Assistant City Manager Dave Corliss brought the bill to the attention of the Lawrence City Commission on Tuesday and sought the commission’s direction on how he should lobby the bill.

Commissioner Sue Hack said the commission would likely support the bill.

“I think it’s an exciting way to finance the ECO2 proposals,” she said. “We’ll see if we can legally do it and go from there.”

Meanwhile, ECO2 members met behind closed doors Tuesday in their continuing effort to settle the financing issue.

Heck said the group would open its meetings back up to the public next week and meet on a weekly basis until it completes a plan to present to Douglas County commissioners.

The group next will meet at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the chamber offices, 734 Vt.

Staff writer Chad Lawhorn contributed to this report.