First Interim Governor Jim Risch wrangled a tax shift from property taxes to sales tax that mostly benefited Idaho’s wealthier citizens and companies. Now Governor-Elect Butch Otter is proposing to eliminate the sales tax, but only for Idaho’s poorest residents.
Where do these two major tax plans leave Idaho’s middle class? Two Republican governors in a row are putting the squeeze on Idaho’s middle class by balancing tax shifts on our backs.
Two laughable aspect of Otter’s grocery tax plan are his need to prove you are poor and his worry that out-of-state visitors will trek into our state to make their weekly grocery purchases.
We can all see the end solution to prove how poor you are will be requiring Idaho citizens to use the state Quest card in order to get your grocery sales tax waived. Even if the sales tax break were granted to families with income levels up to $100,000, this impending policy indicates a clear lack of respect that Otter has for Idahoans.
Otter’s concern that out-of-state visitors would journey to buy their weekly groceries and take advantage of our grocery tax repeal indicates both a strange paranoia and a reversal of bedrock conservative philosophy. One of the most basic tenets of conservative philosophy is that people can manage their money better than government can. If out-of-state visitors were to make considerable grocery purchases in Idaho (which I doubt the impact would be even considerable), isn’t that money going to Idaho grocery businesses? Won’t those Idaho grocery businesses then spend the money locally on more employee pay, more supplies, facility improvements, etc.?
Jim Risch’s plan to phase out the grocery tax at 1% a year over six years indicates Jim thinks he is the only one in on the joke. Only Jim Risch is under the illusion that we don’t see his plan as a method to delay the grocery tax breaks until the legislature can figure out how to shift those taxes elsewhere. Just like Risch’s infamous August 25 tax shift, he is still not serious about cutting taxes for middle class Idahoans with his grocery tax plan.
Given this empty start to tax proposals, I cannot wait to see what other creative ideas Risch and Otter have in store to leave Idaho’s middle class with the check. Otter at least has the excuse of inexperience, given that he admitted to wasting the last six year as our congressional representative and only submitted three bills on his own (one was to rename and Ada county building).
Here’s a plan that Idahoans need and Idaho’s government should be able to live with: cut the grocery tax 3% a year for two years in a row, and do not tangle income as any part of it. Add a contingency that if state revenues fall to a certain dangerous level, graduated corporate tax increases kick in. It’s a simple concept that does not need to be so complicated.
What do you think?
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I can support eliminating sales tax on groceries for all of Idaho whole-heartedly, but where does the reasoning that a deficit can be remidiated by taxing corporate Idaho come from? Don’t taxes on business just get passed back to the consumer anyway?, and doesn’t over-taxing corporations in the state run the risk that these interests will find the state unfriendly and relocate or not locate here at all?
Good point.
But what of our recent history? Albertson’s got some sweetheart tax breaks, and sold to an out of state corporation as fast as they could.
Oops, they got yet another tax break on August 25 for their remaining Idaho assets.
So all those huge property tax breaks that Idaho corporations got on August 25 should be trickling down to the consumers by now, shouldn’t they?
Corporations don’t relocate or move between states based on the tax climate. I have read they consider about 30 other factors more important than the tax rates. Some of those factors include the labor pool skills, the educational opportunities for their workers, and transportation infrastructure.
Anyone wonder if those three things might not be the reason Idaho has problems getting corporations to move here?
Nope, must be their taxes, we had better lower them some more!
I suggest the corporate tax increases as a device to protect against revenue shortfalls. If Idaho does not go into the read in the first two years of dropping the grocery taxes, then no problem. If we do go into the red, it will be a relatively small amount, and the corporate tax increases would increase in gradations matched to the shortfalls.
You make a good argument and I would have to conceed to you that corporations probably do not base their location decision soley on tax issues. Again, this would be because a large corp would simply pass on any added burden back to the consumer. Smaller businesses that do not control market share would have to look at reduced revenues.
You sparked some curiosity here so I went and did a little research. I found data that says we (Idaho) rank 31st this year among the states in state and local tax burden and average a total tax burden of 31.6% of our average state income. This was neither high nor low.
We,that is my business just completed an expansion into another state last year. You are correct in that we looked at many factors before moving on the project. Number one was potential for future revenue and growth. Right behind that were the amount of economic incentives offered by state and local agencies designed to lure us there. They made it easy and attractive for us. I know that there are regional development councils set up around this state to accomplish the same but I don’t have any experience with them or with any local government incentives because we were already here before any of those people cared. I do know that corporations, large and small provide most of our jobs and providing a job in this country, competing in the new, emerging world economy is not an inexpensive proposition. One has to weigh the bottom line on every issue. If we can figure out the next cutting-edge solution to this problem, we could potentially have our pick of good jobs. I don’t think the old anwsers will work.
The faux Risch tax shift just cost me a bunch of money again today as I just got my latest property tax assessment. I’ve owned my home over ten years now. In my first eight years of ownership my homes value went up a grand total of $13,000 which amounted to about a 20% increase overall in that ten years. In the first assessment after the tax shift my home gained $16000 in value in just one year. It was and obvious and predictable end around way for the county to recoup the money they lost in property tax. This year my home increased another $6000. So in two years my house has gained $9000 more than it did in the whole eight years prior. And lets not forget that the increase in sales tax eventually will cost me hundreds of dollars each year.
Thanks for nothing Jim Risch and this is why I’ll be voting for LaRocco this fall.
What do you think about Risch’s tv ads where he talks about reducing the sales tax? He might have mentioned on groceries in the ad, I’m not sure because I was too busy trying to figure out if I had been asleep all this year and had missed the reduction.
I agree with Anonymous on the property tax. The rich folks up in Northern Idaho benefited from his property tax “reduction”, but not me.
I too will be voting for LaRocco. I even voted Republican in the primaries so that I could vote against Risch — not that it did any good, but I felt like I had at least tried.
I hope everyone remembers what Risch did to us while he was acting governor when it comes time to vote in November.
is this a county or a state thing?
or, is this why my property just got reassessed and suddenly grew in value even though it is falling apart?
My Bonneville county property tax valuation went up from $100k to $111k. Is there an appeals process?
Nice try….but counties, not the state assess your property and handle all appeals if filed. It has nothing to really do with Risch and Otter. In fact, you might be interested to know that many localities have attempted to bypass constitutional safeguards that prohibit huge percentage increases from one fiscal year to the next–the Republican Legislature has consistently refused to allow localities to expand their ability to impose additional taxes. So, vote for LaRocco all you want….but your real beef should be with your county commissioners and county assessor. Last time I checked, neither of these guys have ever held the post of assessor.
Here is some fun reading for you that bolsters how county commissioners and county assessors are the real bad apples in Comment #4.
http://www3.state.id.us/idstat/TOC/63003KTOC.html
Read these statutes and weep that your little buddy Risch isn’t anywhere to be found. (knee slapping begins…lmao, just for Crystal).
Nothing funny about taxes, why you lyao?
Do you all realize in Idaho we are not required by law (at least yet) to actually report to our county assessor what we paid for our homes and other properties? Yeah, they send you a paper to fill out and mail back to the county office, but you are not required to do so! You may get requested a few times, but in the end they’ll give up and assess your property based on a guess, or the last known reported value of the property. Usually it’s less than the real value. If they come knocking on your door and want to take a walk through, tough luck.
The senate – or house, whoever – was trying to introduce the bill last year making it mandated by law you had to report property purchase price. Don’t think it went – but someone correct me if I’m wrong. Whether you think it’s right or wrong not to report, we pay way more taxes than necessary and I’m not helping the crooked county assessors and commissioners any more than we have to!
You might check what Risch did to the property exemption tax (homeowners), then equate that back to property taxes. This was done on a state level — not county. On the surface it looked good, but when the smoke had cleared, the ones that realized the bennies were the high end property owners — not the low to middle class.
I realize the county assessors are the ones who raised the assessed value. But it was completely predictable that this would happen. Many critics of Risch’s tax shift, myself included, knew this would be the end result.
re: #11, so when they do take a guess, after years of ignoring their paperwork, can it then be challenged? What if assessed at amount less than purchased, is it then risking yet a higher assessment to challenge? I’m new to all this, so thank you for any input.
Yes, very true. We’ve all been nailed by the ‘ol “bait and switch” scam. “What fine leaders we are, we’re giving you a bigger homeowner’s exemption!” (but we’ll make up for it by raising your property value/taxes every year).
Our assessments for vacation property in central Idaho came with a letter from the assessor. Ours went up a ton! Basically it said values have to keep going up for 2 reasons: (exact quote) #1 – The Assessor is required to value all taxable property at MARKET each year, and, #2 The Idaho State Tax Commission is required to make sure that we do.
The letter goes on to say it does not mean we should expect a tax increase equivalent to the value increase. We’ll have to see. It also claims real estate markets are exploding (many will refute that with our current economy, and slower home sales, whatever).
To answer your question Crystal, the last paragraph does say if we believe our property would not sell for the assessed value, they would be happy to review it with us. It says to check newspapers and other publications for listing price of similar properties. Or, obtain an independent appraisal or market analysis from a realtor.
Do any of you who live in Bonneville, Bingham or Jefferson County know if the county assessor’s office there will go by these same guidelines? Did a letter come with your assessment? We haven’t received our local assessment yet. You’d think they all have to go by the same playbook.
Then here is to praying the California downturn cools things off. I never owned property in California, but I have friends who have lost 100’s of thousands of dollars in value of their property, folks like that are unlikely to be selling and moving to Idaho with their nouveaux richesses
Recent news story about property taxes in Bannock County for those interested:
http://www.kidk.com/news/19735874.html