Bosma: Shifting corporate income tax dollars to workforce training looks unlikely

House Speaker Brian Bosma on Thursday said that redirecting corporate income tax revenue to pay for workforce training programs would likely not make it into law this year.

The proposal is part of a larger retooling of the state's workforce development system that lawmakers have said is a major priority this year. However, Bosma has said that some of the larger proposed initiatives might have to wait.

House Bill 1002 proposed shifting the state's corporate income tax revenue to pay specifically for workforce development training programs.

But the idea has failed to pass muster with enough stakeholders, Bosma said, although negotiations are still ongoing on various workforce bills.

“That probably is not something that will be in the final package, and that’s OK,” Bosma said. “We were trying to draw a direct relationship between corporate tax dollars and training dollars.”

Bosma said the idea was “by no means a silver bullet on workforce issues,” so “sometimes it’s better to come back another day to discuss it.”

Last fiscal year, the state collected $978 million in corporate income tax revenue. But as of January, year-to-date corporate income tax collections totaled $178 million, or 50 percent what they had been through the same period last year.

The state's fiscal year runs from July 1 to the following June 30.