House passes Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit, capping refundable credits at $50 million

The Idaho House of Representatives on Feb. 7 passed House Bill 93, the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit Bill, a measure to create a refundable tax credit to reimburse families for eligible K–12 nonpublic-education expenses. Representative, District 32 (bill sponsor) presented the bill on the House floor. The House voted 42 ayes, 28 nays in favor of passage; the bill will be transmitted to the Senate.

Under the version presented on the floor, House Bill 93 would allow families to claim a refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 per child for qualified education expenses; the credit would rise to $7,500 for a child with a disability. Sponsor remarks described eligible students as "full time Idaho residents from the age of 5 to 18, except for students with disabilities, which is the age of 5 to 21." The sponsor enumerated qualified expenses on the floor to include K–12 tuition and fees for nonpublic schools, tutoring, nationally standardized tests, college-admission assessments, Advanced Placement costs, textbooks, curricula and transportation to academic instruction settings. The bill includes a hard cap of $50,000,000 on total credits available in a tax year and gives application priority to families at or below 300% of the federal poverty limit; the sponsor said that threshold equates roughly to "95,000 gross, about 65,000 roughly, for, adjusted gross" in…