Tax Relief Money Rebudgeted

Legislation designed to give the state credit for picking up a portion of school funding that used to fall on the property tax cleared a Senate committee Wednesday, but not without a warning that it creates a false impression.

The bill was described by sponsor Sen. Evan Frasure, R-Pocatello, as a mere accounting change.Instead of coming off the top of sales tax proceeds, the bill calls for the money to be counted with the general fund, and included in the public school appropriation.

But Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino, said that will allow some to argue that the schools don’t need additional funds.

“This was not additional money to schools - it was a tax shift,” McLaughlin warned. “The impression it gives out there is that schools are receiving more money, and they’re not.”

Rainy day fund clears panel

Hayden Republican Jim Clark’s “budget stabilization” bill cleared a Senate committee Wednesday and headed to the full Senate for a final vote.

The bill would change the way Idaho budgets by requiring 1 percent of the state’s revenues to be placed in a special savings account in any year they grow by more than 4 percent.

If the bill had been in effect this year, lawmakers would have been forced to set aside $15 million.

The measure has already passed the House. It won unanimous support in the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, amid comments that it could save the state from a future tax increase or budget holdback.

Help for death penalty cases

Counties need help dealing with expensive murder cases, state senators said Wednesday, as they sent the governor legislation to set up a special fund and create a state appellate public defender.

Providing a public defender in death penalty cases costs so much that some cases end in pleas rather than trials simply because of the cost, said Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo. “Now that’s not justice,” he said.

Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, said the measure, House Bill 477, is of particular interest to North Idaho. In Kootenai County alone, there have been eight capital cases in the past 16 months, he said.

“Our property owners have had to fund those,” Crow said.

The bill sets up a Capital Crimes Defense Fund. Counties that choose to pay into the fund could draw on it when they have a case.