The North Dakota State Senate defeated the House Income Tax Cut Plan by a vote of 13-33 today.
They waited till the day after Tax Day to do it.
After amending it down from $150 million to $33 million, the Senate just could not bring itself to cut income taxes at all today.
Luckily, that same Senate earlier in the session passed its own $125 million income tax cut package in Senate Bill 2349- which passed by a vote of 33-14 (almost the exact inverse of today's vote).
That's right - a lot of Senators will be able to say they voted for income tax cuts before their voted against income tax cuts.
What is the Senate's excuse for flip-flopping on tax cuts?
They need to spend it, of course!
According to the Forum Communications article:
Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the Legislature is reaching the stage of the session where tough decisions must be made, and the last report from Legislative Council indicated the 2015-17 budget still had a $66 million deficit.
Holmberg said that with significant gaps remaining between House and Senate versions of budget bills – they’re $140 million apart on K-12 funding and $39 million apart on the Department of Human Services budget – the $33 million in income tax cuts would be better used to close those gaps.
He noted the Legislature has reduced individual and corporate income taxes every session since 2009 and made property tax relief a priority again this session.
“Let’s take a two-year break on these other two areas,” he said of the income taxes.
