HB 197, legislation to strip "grandfathered" status from four school districts that got little state funding in 2006 when the state shifted basic school funding off the property tax, has passed the House on a 53-14 vote. Rep. Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, said, "This is an issue about fairness, it's an issue about taxation without representation." He said he's a former local school board member in the McCall-Donnelly school district. "The patrons who live there are starting to wonder why their taxes are so high," he said. "All it's asking is that there be a vote by the taxpayers ... to decide whether they want to fund their schools at a higher level." He dismissed the promise that lawmakers made to those districts in 2006, saying no Legislature can bind a future Legislature; decisions, he said, must be made each year.

Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, debating against the bill, said, "The timing of this thing is what bothers me the most." Idaho is facing great uncertainty on school funding he said. Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, said he's not requested an attorney general's opinion, but he said, "The constitutionality of what we did with HB 1 is and will become an issue if we don't address it now." HB 1 is the property tax-shift bill that was passed in a special session in August of 2006, including the grandfather clause for the four districts. Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, said she's heard from people in the four districts that they don't want the law changed. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.