House Rejects Tax Increase For Education

The House rejected a major portion of a hoped-for 400 million dollar tax package today. The vote against a seven-eighths of a cent sales tax increase again leaves Arkansas without means to support a new school funding formula designed to overhaul public education. The sales tax increase was rejected shortly after the House passed a scaled-down corporate franchise tax increase. Together, the two measures were intended to form a 400 (m) million dollar tax package to pay for an overhaul of a school system that Arkansas` Supreme Court has found unconstitutional. The franchise tax bill left the Senate last week intended to raise more than 14 million dollars. But the House tax committee lowered the minimum corporate franchise tax in the bill from 250 dollars to 100 dollars, a change that would lower the bill`s yield to about eight million dollars annually when fully implemented. The amendment made no provision for making up the loss. The Senate would have to agree to House changes. Posted by Mike Hellgren