Tax cut proposal survives skeptical Idaho Senate panel

An Idaho Senate panel has advanced a $51 million tax cut proposal, but only after promising that the measure will have to be heavily amended if it’s going to survive the body.

The bill, backed by House Majority Leader Mike Moyle of Star, would currently exempt the first $750 of income from taxation, as well as reduce the top income and corporate rates from 7.4 percent to 7.2 percent.

The Senate Local Government and Taxation approved the sending the proposal to be amended Wednesday with just one Democratic member opposed.

Republican Sen. Dan Johnson, chairman of the legislative panel, said he could not approve the proposal in its present form and was unsure if he would approve of it after amendments.

Last year, a similar proposal failed to make it out of the Senate committee after surviving the House.