SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah House of Representatives killed the latest incarnation of Senate Bill 154, the combined tuition tax credit and educational reform bill, during the Thursday Feb. 27 floor session.

House representatives rejected the most recent committee report of SB 154 and voted to send the bill to the House Rules Committee for further modification.

Representative James Ferrin, R-Orem, said representatives rejected the committee report for many reasons. Some were opposed to the types of reforms the bill calls for, the type of funding specified in the bill, and some figured the bill needed to go to the Rules Committee regardless of whether or not they opposed the bill, he said.

The bill, sponsored by Thomas Hatch, R-Panguitch, is made up of three controversial elements: education reforms, funding for education reforms, and tuition tax credits, said Governor Leavitt's spokesperson Natalie Gochnour. Though both Leavitt and the Legislature agree that reforms are necessary, they have been at odds over how such reforms should be funded, and whether tuition tax credits should be approved. Leavitt recently said he would veto the bill if it included tax hikes.

Gochnour said the governor's first concern is implementing educational reforms without raising taxes. The governor would be "willing to talk" about tuition tax credits when reforms are implemented.

Leavitt has proposed drawing funds for educational reforms from the Centennial Highway Fund which would slow down road construction and renovation statewide, and raising additional funds by cutting nonagricultural water subsidies.

Gochnour said Leavitt has had "quite a bit" of communication with House and Senate leaders regarding SB 154, and met with party leaders Thursday to negotiate a substitution for the bill that would be approved by both the Legislature and the Governor.

"Everyone's trying to be continually productive," she said. "There's a significant effort to solve this problem from both the governor and the Legislature."

Representative Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, who submitted the recently-rejected fourth substitution, said he continues to work with other legislators to draft an acceptable substitution.

"It's like algebra," he said. "There are a lot of variable that have to equal 38 votes, but I'm optimistic."

Urquhart added that if the controversial tuition tax credit is dropped from the bill, funding measures will likely be dropped as well.

"We're still trying to get a handle on what's doable," he said.

Pat Rusk, president of the Utah Education Association, said none of the three aspects of the bill will help the state of education in Utah. She said she was dissatisfied with several of the reforms outlined in the bill, calling them "silly pet projects."

"Adding two members to a local school board, what's that going to do?" she said. "Do kids in the classrooms really care how the state board in organized?"

Rusk said any new legislation that includes tuition tax credits is also unacceptable.