House Passes Bills For Education Funding

Two bills passed Wednesday night by the state House are being called a win by teachers Thursday morning because that could mean more money for education.

Both measures raise tens of millions of dollars, but they say there are still millions of more on the table.  

Those bills would raise money from taxes on online shopping and gambling in the state, netting more than $40 million for education. 

The first is the so-called "ball and dice" tax that would allow games like roulette and craps in Indian casinos to use balls and dice. That bill is on it's way to the Senate and is expected to raise nearly $22 million. 

The other is the so-called Amazon tax revenue bill. It taxes third-party vendors that use sites like Amazon to sell products. Right now, the state only collects online sales tax from companies with physical locations and the push to collect more online taxes has been a major push for lawmakers and the governor in recent years. 

That bill is expected to give education $20 million, though it is still a far cry from the demands of teachers that's in the hundreds of millions.  

The Amazon tax bill now heads to the Senate where it could be voted on Thursday. 

Also, lawmakers could take up a few more taxes in committee. Those would be closing a loophole on capital gains, taxing new software and capping a tax credit for wind farms. Those were supposed to be heard Wednesday but the meeting was delayed.