[Vision2020] Legislative Newsletter 11, March 20-24

[cynthia nichols]

On Mar 25, 2006, at 6:26 AM, ttrail at moscow.com wrote:

>   The major property tax relief measure which passed the House would
>  increase the sales tax by ½ cent to replace 0.15% of the property tax
>  for school M & O. This would still leave a gap of about $35  
> million to
>  come up with, and there are serious doubts of the state's commitment
>  to maintain this funding.  Other measures discussed in the Senate  
> relate
>  to increasing the sales tax to 1 cent and replacing all of the M &  
> O.  It
>  will be interesting to see how this plays out.

My concern is that at least property taxes are tax deductible from my  
federal taxes. Sales tax is not. This doesn't seem like relief to  
me!! Since sales tax is regressive, it just shifts the burden to  
those who are least able to pay (especially since food is taxed too).  
We need an initiative (like Prop 13 in California) which  further  
limits the annual property tax rate increase. It should also freeze  
the property's  assessed valuation until the property is sold (after  
all, my property is not worth more to me until I can sell it for a  
higher price).
If the legislature can't do it, shouldn't we do it for them? Is  
anything like this in the works in Idaho?

cynthia nichols
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