[L]awmakers on the House tax panel decided on Friday to postpone a decision on whether to pursue a plan that would reform the state’s education finance system.
If they do move forward with the proposal, they probably would delay its implementation by one year.
House Ways and Means chair Rep. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, said the committee likely will decide by the end of the week whether to continue working on the proposal, which would change the state’s education finance system from one based on property taxes to one funded partially by property taxes and by a new income tax.
Ancel said Friday that the panel will continue to discuss whether to pursue the changes next week.
“It felt like I was pushing it, and I don’t think people were ready,” she said.
The committee is still discussing ideas for tweaking the proposal. Members also are reviewing analyses done by the nonpartisan joint fiscal office, she said. If the committee does move forward, it will be with due deliberation.
“We realize this is a really significant change and we’re taking it really seriously,” she said.
The panel decided Thursday by an informal straw vote that if they do pursue the reform plan, they would push the start date out by a year, according to members of the committee.
The initial proposal called for implementation in fiscal 2019, which school board members across the state objected to because of the tight timeline — a message many people articulated at a public hearing earlier this week.
The tax-focused committee held a joint hearing with the House Education Committee on Friday to discuss the bill. That panel would likely be involved in any initiative that moves forward.
Ancel anticipates that if the committee does proceed with the reform package, it would be on the bill that sets the statewide property tax rates, called the yield bill.
She wouldn’t say whether she expects lawmakers to proceed with the proposal, but she said there seems to be appetite for considering a change in the education finance model.
Rep. Sam Young, D-Glover, said Friday that nothing has been decided yet for the bill. He expects that the committee will opt to move forward.
“We’ll likely advance some version of this proposal for 2020,” Young said.
Some in the committee are hesitant to move forward with the proposal that is currently before the panel.
Rep. Cynthia Browning, D-Arlington, applauded the decision to push back the implementation of the bill until 2020, saying she considered it “too much too soon.”
Browning said she supports the idea of using income tax to support education — she is proposing an income tax reform concept that would support education initiatives. But said she cannot support the model the panel is considering.
“They’re creating a parallel income tax system,” Browning said. “We already have an income tax system. Use that.”
