Tax cut trumps school repairs

Lawmakers compromised on a $29 million election-year tax cut Tuesday, clearing the way to end their long, contentious legislative session today.

Coeur d'Alene Sen. Jack Riggs and Moscow Sen. Gary Schroeder gave up on their last-ditch plan to scrap part of the tax cut in favor of fixing school buildings.

"I saw the votes coming down," conceded Schroeder, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

Said Riggs, "I just went with the caucus decision. ... It's frustrating."

Idaho still faces a lawsuit over the condition of its schoolhouses, and the tax-cut decision Tuesday halved the money available for a school building safety loan program from $20 million to $10 million or less.

"My personal opinion is that we haven't done enough" for schools, Riggs said.

The Legislature's joint budget committee will meet early this morning to decide how to finance the loan program.

Also on Tuesday, lawmakers approved a public works budget that drew similar angst from Panhandle politicians angry that local schools were shorted.

Regarding the public works budget, Sen. Shawn Keough of Sandpoint objected to millions of dollars being spent elsewhere in the state. "My school building is falling down, and we can't get jack."

The long impasse on the tax cut pitted a House plan for a huge tax cut against a more moderate plan in the Senate. The stalemate ended when senators agreed to the House's compromise plan for a $12.5 million state income tax cut - but only after making it a one-time refund for the 2000 tax year.

That cut gives about $11 to every wage earner in the state.

Weary House members agreed unanimously to go along with the measure, as the session dragged into April for only the fifth time in history.

"We probably came away with a lot more than a lot of us thought we were going to get," said House Revenue and Taxation Committee Chairman Dolores Crow, R-Nampa, who led the tax-cut push. "It isn't $50 million. It isn't $40 million. But it's darn close to $30 million."

The plan goes to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who indicated Tuesday that the package was acceptable to him. So far, Kempthorne hasn't vetoed any of the hundreds of bills passed by this year's Legislature.

Keough also opposed the amendment that made the income tax cut a one-time deal instead of a permanent change. "If it's just one year, I think long-term it raises questions in people's minds as to what their tax load is going to be," she said.

The rest of the Panhandle's senators - Clyde Boatright, R- Rathdrum; Gordon Crow, R-Hayden; Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino; and Riggs - voted for the amendment.

When it came time to pass the amended bill, Keough joined the others in supporting it.

"I have to support the pieces of it that I like," she said. "You have to sort of hold your nose and support it."

Schroeder opposed the amendment and the bill, maintaining that only the super-rich will benefit significantly from the tax cuts, while schools will suffer.

If the Legislature doesn't act next year to extend the cut, income tax rates will return to their current level.

Copyright 2000 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.