Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, moved to “divide the question,” dividing HB 463, the governor’s tax-cut bill, into two parts – conformity with federal tax changes, and cuts to Idaho income taxes, including rate cuts and a new child tax credit. Nate said he was making the proposal “seeing as how this bill has several sections in it that are doing different things,” and said one of those is conformity, which he said he objects to on constitutional grounds. Nate said he objects to the conformity part because it recognizes that married same-sex couples can file their tax returns jointly.

Once again, House Minority Leader Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, seconded the motion. Erpelding said, "The $94.7 million that's coming in from federal tax conformity is what the first vote should be on, and how we hold families harmless. If you all want to move forward with other income tax reductions, fine, but we should divide it into two separate votes."

House Assistant Majority Leader Ron Crane, R-Nampa, spoke against the motion, noting that the earlier motion to send the bill to general orders had failed; he had voted in favor of that one. 

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, referring to the voided anti-same sex marriage clause that still appears in Idaho's Constitution, told the House, "Any time we have the opportunity to defend our Idaho Constitution and look at that ... and really review that, this is our opportunity to do it."

Nate's motion failed, 18-52. This time, the only “yes” votes were from Reps. Chew, Erpelding, Gannon, Giddings, Hanks, Jordan, King, Kloc(Chilcote), McCrostie, Nate, Rubel, Scott, Shepherd, Smith, Toone, Wintrow, Zito and Zollinger.

 

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