The House has voted 68-1 in favor of HB 220, the “new and improved bill” to renew an expansion of the state tax credit for donations to schools that otherwise would have expired at the end of the year. That was the description given by Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, who co-sponsored HB 220 with House Revenue & Taxation Committee Chairman Gary Collins, R-Nampa. “I have been involved with the efforts to improve this bill since February,” Scott told the House. “There have been a lot of interested parties and we have compromised with something everyone seems to agree on.” The one “no” vote came from Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian.

Collins said, “We feel we have tightened up some of the things in the bill as far as who can take it and what they can do with the money that they have. I feel that we have come up with a pretty good consensus bill. It has been very interesting to me as we’ve worked on this piece of legislation over the last month to see how much impact this has had across the state.”

The bill now moves to the Senate side. It keeps in place the current tax credits: Individuals can get a credit for 50 percent of their donation to Idaho schools, libraries or museums, up to 50 percent of their total income tax liability or a maximum of $500 in a single tax year. For corporations, the credit is also 50 percent, but is limited to 10 percent of their total Idaho income tax liability or $5,000 a year.  The tax credit has been costing the state general fund about $2.8 million a year, but has been helping attract donations to schools.

The bill actually hadn't been scheduled to come up today, but the House is suspending its rules and considering bills on its 2nd Reading Calendar today, rather than waiting for them to hit the 3rd Reading Calendar in another day, as deadlines hit to transmit bills from one house to the other and legislative leaders push for a March 27 adjournment of this year's legislative session.