Idaho House suspends rules to pass unemployment tax cut right away

The Idaho House has voted unanimously – 69-0 – in favor of legislation to cut unemployment insurance taxes for Idaho employers by $115 million over the next three years; the House vote sends the bill to the Senate.

The bill was proposed last year and widely supported, but it got killed in the cross-fire between the House and Senate over other tax cuts. House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, tried then to tie the popular bill to a controversial income tax cut, in an unsuccessful effort to force the Senate to go along with that proposal; the Senate instead passed a bill to eliminate the sales tax on groceries, but the governor vetoed it.

Now Moyle’s the lead sponsor of the unemployment tax break, which includes an emergency clause to make it retroactive to Jan. 1, 2018. On Tuesday, he persuaded the House to suspend its usual rules and take up the bill immediately, rather than waiting another day. The change would have no impact on the state general fund; it comes as the state’s unemployment trust fund has swelled.

To become law, the bill still needs to clear a Senate committee and pass the Senate, then be signed into law by the governor.