House measure seeks to clarify use of ed funds

Criticized by some for sending income tax revenues to colleges to free up general fund money for roads, a House GOP leader has worked up a bill that adds a new title to education coffers.

That layer would be called the "Education Fund," which would catch all income tax revenues. Then, money would flow to either higher education or the Uniform School Fund, which already exists and solely funds public education.

House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, says HB294 — which the House Education Standing Committee unanimously forwarded to the full House Tuesday — would improve understanding that both higher and public education are entitled, under a voter-approved 1996 constitutional amendment, to income tax dollars. The bill would do nothing further, he said.

"It would benefit all of us," Alexander told the committee. "People are feeling like we're taking money out of the Uniform School Fund and giving it to higher education, but we're not."

State Associate Superintendent Patrick Ogden says he will continue to evaluate where income tax revenues, once solely for public schools, go.

"This is a feel-good bill" for legislators, Ogden said. "This is the presoak cycle of the laundering process, or converting of income tax revenues to the general fund. . . . It cleans the mark of the income tax off when it goes into higher education and out the general fund."