House approves optional tax-return donations to create School Meals Debt Relief Fund

Representative McPherson introduced House Bill 148 to establish a School Meals Debt Relief Fund administered by the State Board of Education and funded by optional check-box donations on state tax returns. "What this bill does is it establishes a new section, called the School Meals Debt Relief Fund," he said, adding the board would create and manage the fund so donors could direct payments to cover student meal debt.

Supporters and critics focused on how collected funds would be distributed. Representative Auxier asked whether the fund would be targeted to specific communities or statewide; McPherson said the board would have authority to direct funds and "if the amount of funds collected on this is very small, distributing that evenly across the entire state...may not be very beneficial and it might be best for them to target those areas that might see the most need." Representative Hansen said local solutions sometimes work better and opposed giving unspecified rulemaking authority, describing concerns about "picking winners and losers" and noting prior community efforts to pay off school lunch debt.

McPherson emphasized the measure is voluntary, creates a mechanism for donations already familiar to taxpayers and does not impose a cost on the state. "This allows this fund to be created and allows an optional donation category," he said. The House voted to pass the bill on final reading, 70 yes to 1 no; it will be sent to the Senate for consideration.