Blog

The Senate has passed (June 7) a tax bill which leaves the unsustainable income tax cuts intact, increases sales tax, and includes the expansion of the corporate tax credit “scholarship” program. The tax bill moves on to the House where the moderates and Democrats have higher numbers. Here are the votes: Yea – (21): Abrams, Bruce, Denning, Donovan, Fitzgerald, Holmes, Kerschen, King, Knox, LaTurner, Love, Lynn, Masterson, Melcher, O’Donnell, Petersen, Pilcher-Cook, Powell, Smith, Wagle, Wilborn, Nay – (17): Baumgardner, Bowers, Faust-Goudeau, Francisco, Haley, Hawk, Hensley, Holland, Kelly, Longbine, McGinn, Ostmeyer, Pettey, Pyle, Schmidt, Tyson, Wolf, Absent and Not...

“A late-session attempt by some lawmakers to expand a controversial private school tuition program has public school educators fearing a repeat of last spring, when lawmakers folded contentious K-12 policy changes into an appropriations bill in the eleventh hour.” We learned a lot at the end of the 2014 legislative session. We saw bills we opposed, which had not passed out of committee, put into the final appropriations bill to provide the funding to comply with the Gannon decision. We are watching this legislature very carefully as we are deeply concerned that additional anti-public school provisions could be...