Education HB 65 Passes the House
Rep. Reed DeMordaunt’s bill to keep districts whole, in the wake of the Students Come First repeal, passed the House Tuesday February 19, 2013. DeMordaunt, who leads the House Education Committee, said House Bill 65 prevents school districts from losing more than $30 Million in anticipated funding. The districts anticipated this funding would be available, based around the
H 72, The Education Foundation Regulatory Relief Act
On January 29, 2013 a bill I sponsored, H 72 – the Education Foundation Regulatory Relief Act, was introduced in the House. This bill passed the House on February 11, 2013 70-0 and was approved without dissent by the Senate. It has now been signed by the Governor. This bill amends Idaho Code Section 63-3029A that currently offers an Idaho income tax credit for voluntary donations to various components of our state’s educational infrastructure that are tax-exempt under Section 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue (IRS)Code. In order to take advantage of these credits, eligible entities are required to form separately governed nonprofit IRS tax-exempt foundations. For some of these organizations, the cost of creating the foundation as well as the annual state and federal compliance requirements can make it difficult or impossible to create a foundation or when started the operational costs can eat up a significant portion of their annual revenue. Additionally, these small foundations often rely on volunteers as they many times have no paid staff, permanent accountants or bookkeepers. And, over-the-years, many small organizations have lost their tax-exempt status through failure to file IRS Form 990 annually.