BOISE, ID – The Idaho Senate voted unanimously Monday to pass a bill that seeks to reduce property taxes and pay down school districts’ bond issues and levies.

The Idaho Senate voted 35-0 to pass House Bill 304.

If passed into law, House Bill 304 would do a couple of things.

The bill would transfer $50 million to a state fund to reduce property taxes for Idaho homeowners.

It also would send another $50 million to a state fund that helps pay off school districts’ bond issues and levies.

To make those two transfers, the bill reduces state revenue by $100 million every year.

Sens. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, and Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, co-sponsored the bill in the Idaho Senate.

“These amounts help with housing,” Grow said.

“The monthly mortgage payment gets reduced by a reduction in property taxes,” Grow added. “It helps young people trying to get into homes. It helps the older people who are retired that are trying to stay in their homes.”

Idaho Legislature has also passed other tax cuts this session

House Bill 304 is the third major tax cut the Idaho Legislature has passed this year.

• House Bill 40 reduces the corporate and individual income tax rates from 5.695% to 5.3% and reduces state revenue by $253 million per year.
• House Bill 231 increases the grocery tax credit used to offset the sales tax Idahoans pay on food to $155 per year. To increase the grocery tax credit, House Bill 231 reduces state revenue by $50 million every year.

Combined, the three bills reduce state revenue by $403 million.

Another new law this year, House Bill 93, provides a refundable tax credit for education expenses for families, including tuition at private, religious schools. That bill reduces revenue by $50 million – bringing total revenue reductions from those four bills to $453 million.

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, voted in favor of the bill because she said property taxes and housing affordability are two of the issues her constituents are most concerned about. But Wintrow said she is worried about the amount of state revenue that will be reduced to pass all of the tax cuts.

“We’re over $400 million in revenue reductions as we go forward,” Wintrow said.”And this bill is continuously appropriated, so every year, $100 million is going to go this way. And so what I would hope is that next year we don’t forget that, and that we don’t do another income tax rebate that really only benefits the wealthiest at the top.”

Wintrow said she wished legislative leaders acted on the property tax bill before passing the income tax cut and grocery tax credit increase this year.

“I’m happy to do the property tax relief, but I think this should have been the first and foremost (tax cut) right out of the gate, not the last one,” Wintrow said. “Because now we’re adding on more permanent revenue reductions that will potentially be harmful to the very people that demand the services that we need in our state.”

The Idaho House of Representatives has already voted 68-0 to pass House Bill 304.

House Bill 304 heads next to Gov. Brad Little for final consideration. Once the bill reaches his desk, Little will have five days to sign it into law or veto it. If Little does not take action within five days, the bill will become law without his signature.

During a breakfast with reporters in February, Little said he was concerned by the amount of revenue that will be reduced by the three major tax cuts and the education tax credit.

“If I would have thought we could do $450 (million), I would have proposed $450 (million),” Little said Feb. 25.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.