{"id":1172,"date":"2020-01-29T10:39:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T17:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2020-01-26T22:44:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T05:44:25","slug":"the-tax-man-cometh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"The Tax Man Cometh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
My old shop three-legged stool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a stark contrast to watch legislators propose some dramatic\ntax policy changes then read the Boise\nState Public Policy Survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I attended a Republican traveling town hall a few weeks back\nand there was lots of talk about property tax relief. I guess property values are\ngoing through the roof in the Treasure Valley. Property tax bills are going up.\nRates haven\u2019t changed, but valuations have and county governments and\nmunicipalities have to deal with the growth. The Republican legislators felt\nthe need to provide some relief to homeowners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have indeed been some proposals early in the session.\nOne suggestion is to double the sales tax and eliminate property tax. Another\nis to add a cent onto sales tax and prohibit local school or municipal levies.\nBoth of these proposals would disturb the \u201cthree-legged stool\u201d of Idaho\u2019s tax\nstructure which gets near equal revenue from sales, property and income taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind, sales and income taxes go mainly to the state\ngeneral fund, but property taxes stay more local with counties. But over half\nof the state general fund pays for K12 education here in Idaho, so those income\nand sales taxes you pay don\u2019t stay down in Boise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you read the Boise State Survey and it seems Idahoans\nhave a different perspective. More people think the state budget should stay\nthe same (43%) than think it should increase (37%) but only 8% supported a\ndecrease. When asked about taxes, a strong majority (68%) thought taxes were\nabout right; only 20% thought they were too high. These conservative Idahoans also\nagreed (almost 60%) that the state was headed in the right direction. Only 30%\nthought it was on the wrong track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So just what problem in our tax structure are legislators\nfeeling the need to solve? Or maybe, now when people are pretty happy, those\npesky legislators think a little disruption would be tolerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

States do tax policy all manner of ways, and we have\nneighboring states with all three different flavors. Oregon has no sales tax.\nWashington, Nevada and Wyoming get by without an income tax. But comparing\nchocolate to strawberry to vanilla is just what tax wonks love to do. \u201cTax\nburden\u201d is the appropriate term coined by such researchers and whenever the\nstudies are done, Idaho comes in pretty darn low. One study by the Idaho Tax\nCommission in 2015 showed Idahoans had the second lowest tax burden in the\ncountry. I think the Boise State survey respondents sense the light burden and\ndon\u2019t feel the need for major changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know the highest tax bracket in the Idaho income tax\ntables tops out at $11,554\/ year? That means you could be in Idaho\u2019s top income\ntax bracket and still be eligible for Medicaid. In essence, we have a flat\nincome tax. Almost 97% of the state\u2019s income tax revenue comes from people in\nthe top bracket. Almost all of us pay the top rate of 6.92% on our income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier I mentioned the three-legged stool of Idaho\u2019s tax\nstructure. This analogy was always held up to me as a model for stability. When\na recession hits, income and sales tax revenue plummets, but property tax\nrevenue stays more stable. We saw this in 2008-9 with the Great Recession.\nGovernor Risch\u2019s tax reform of 2006 raised sales tax a cent but cut property\ntaxes and Idaho education funding got cut. But local levies sure cropped up,\ndidn\u2019t they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representative Caroline Nilsson Troy made an interesting comment\nthis week at a legislative coffee meeting hosted by the Moscow Chamber of\nCommerce. She pointed out how the committee that spends the money (JFAC) gets\nlots of support staff and interim study time. An investment in the committees\nthat raise the money might be worth it too. That is, unless you think things\nare doing just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a stark contrast to watch legislators propose some dramatic tax policy changes then read the Boise State Public Policy Survey. I attended a Republican traveling town hall a few weeks back and there was lots of talk about property … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}