Public schools in Oregon will have to wait longer to find out how much state funding they can expect over the next two years.
The Oregon House postponed a key vote Tuesday on the K-12 budget.
Majority Democrats said delaying the vote for a week would allow more time for lawmakers to negotiate a possible corporate tax hike.
Rep. Barbara Smith Warner, D-Portland, said the wait could yield dividends for Oregon schools.
"We are still working hard to find a way to make strategic new investments in our schools by containing costs and reforming our revenue system," she said.
Smith Warner called next Tuesday a "hard deadline," for voting on the bill.
House Republican leader Mike McLane of Powell Butte called the delay a "political maneuver." He unsuccessfully argued for an immediate vote on the funding bill.
"We don't need more games played with our kids," said McLane.
The proposal to delay the vote until June 27 was approved on a party-line vote.
The K-12 budget passed the Oregon Senate on June 8 with bipartisan support. The House vote would be the final stop before the bill goes to the governor's desk.
The decision to delay it came the same day that a union-backed group announced it had submitted an initial batch of signatures on a trio of ballot measures aimed at increasing corporate taxes.
A Better Oregon campaign manager Hannah Love suggested in a statement that the group would only move forward with their initiatives if lawmakers don't act to hike taxes on businesses.
"If legislators do not step up," she said, "it will be our only choice."
Copyright 2017 Oregon Public Broadcasting
