INDIANAPOLIS — The General Assembly passed a bill to revamp the state’s taxpayer refund program and boost full-day kindergarten funding before adjourning the 2012 session and heading home for the year.

The House voted 76-17 and the Senate 40-10 to send House Bill 1376 to Gov. Mitch Daniels for action. The bill — which would also designate $6 million more to victims of last year’s Indiana State Fair stage collapse — was the last on the calendar in the House after more than two months of work on legislation.

If Daniels signs the bill into law, Hoosiers are still likely to receive a refund for taxes paid this year. That could be about $50 per taxpayer, depending on the amount of money in the state’s main checking account and reserves at the end of the fiscal year.

“The bill has probably nearly $200 million in taxpayer refunds,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale. “Some people say: What’s 50 bucks to the average person? My guess is they’re probably going to be happy to have that $200 million in their pocket.”

Going forward, however, the bill will tweak the taxpayer refund formulas so that it will be less likely the state issues refunds in the future. They would also be issued only for taxes paid in odd-numbered years, which is when lawmakers write the state’s two-year budgets.

Under the current law, which the General Assembly passed last year, the state pays refunds when its reserves equal more than 10 percent of the following year’s budget. That calculation will next be made on June 30, the last day of the current fiscal year.

Half the money in excess of the 10 percent trigger goes to taxpayer refunds. The other half is transferred into the state’s underfunded pension accounts.

The legislation the General Assembly sent to the governor will raise the trigger to 12.5 percent.

If that trigger were in place this year, Hoosiers probably would not be getting a refund. The excess revenue would continue to be evenly split between taxpayers and refunds.

The $80 million boost in funding for full-day kindergarten is expected to allow the program to be offered in all districts, and the bill would prohibit schools from charging parents for the classes.

“I can’t stress enough how vital it is to the children in our state that we support full-day kindergarten,” said Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville. “With the passage of House Bill 1376, Indiana will now provide approximately $80 million in new financing for full-day kindergarten, fully funding the program for the first time in history.”

Daniels, who is expected to sign the bill into law, said “full-day kindergarten for every Indiana 5-year-old, after all our years of effort, is certainly a highlight for me.”

The additional $6 million for state fair victims comes on top of $5 million the state has already paid. Seven people died and dozens were killed when the stage collapsed in a storm before a Sugarland concert.

Of the new $6 million in payments, $2 million would be reserved for victims suffering from long-term disabilities caused by the collapse.

Several Democrats voted against the bill. Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, said he was frustrated that the Republicans put language about the so-called turnaround academies — which are takeovers of failing schools — into the bill at the last minute.

Crawford said he saw the final language just a few hours before the vote.

“We can’t have to keep running up against these deadlines where we don’t have a chance to fully understand what’s in the bill,” he said.

House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said the addition of the schools language cheapened the bill. And Bauer also said the state probably could have spent the $200 million on something more meaningful than taxpayer refunds.

He suggested preschool programs or additional spending on child services.

“A lot of people in this state would give $50 back,” Bauer said, “if they could save even one child’s life.”

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