Senate Democratic leader's bill would extend expiring payroll tax, tie it to school safety,

[TexasTowelie]

Senate Democratic leader's bill would extend expiring payroll tax, tie it to school safety, education


Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro has introduced a bill that would allocate roughly $98 million in set-to-expire proceeds of the state’s payroll tax to school safety, Pre-K programs and expanding educational programs serving English-language learners and low-income students.

SB551, which was introduced on the Senate floor on Monday, proposes to restore all of the $30 million in funding for school safety programs that was cut from Gov. Steve Sisolak’s budget earlier this month by legislative budget committees, allocate an additional $4 million for Pre-K programs and boost funding of the state’s Zoom and Victory School programs by $63 million.

It comes as schools — most prominently the Clark County School District — are clamoring for more funding beyond the $62 million that lawmakers added to the general school budget over the weekend. It could put pressure on Republicans, who have called for more education funding and decried school safety cuts as lawmakers freed up more than $200 million from the governor’s budget, but who have been staunchly opposed to extending the payroll tax rate.

The funding would be directly allocated from a portion of the Modified Business Tax, which is assessed on payroll, that would not exist if the rate decreases at the end of the fiscal year because of provisions of a 2015 law requiring the tax rate to drop if certain taxes overperformed. Legislative Democrats earlier this month received an opinion from the Legislative Counsel Bureau stating that a two-thirds vote wasn’t needed to extend the tax rate — something Republicans have warned could spark a “constitutional crisis.”

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/senate-democratic-leaders-bill-would-extend-expiring-payroll-tax-tie-it-to-school-safety-education