Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Science and technology


This Friday, Gov. Jim Risch will try and pass his special interest tax shift during an expensive special session of the Idaho Legislature.

The tax shift would essential give an 18% tax break for all property owners, while at the same time raising the sales tax by 1 percentage point or 20%. This means big businesses get a break, and homeowners get the shaft.

This disturbs me on so many levels.

In Idaho, as in many other states, property tax goes to pay for education. So, under this new tax plan, financing education in Idaho would put a greater demand on sales tax.

Idaho has some of the lowest tax burden in the U.S.
Idaho has some of the lowest paying jobs in the U.S.
Idaho is one of the worst educated states in the U.S.
Idaho's tech industry is almost non-existent with the exception of Idaho National Laboratories, Micron and HP.
There are 140+ employees in Idaho government who work to assist agriculture based business. There is 1 employee dedicated to promoting science and technology.

Why do I bring all of this up? I mention these things because we should be paying more into education in Idaho! Instead, we tout our beautiful state as the state where businesses can come to use up our water, air, and land, but pay the lowest taxes. Not only that, but they don't have to pay their employees worth squat either.

Even with our ridiculously low tax burden, we still don't attract high tech industries because we don't generate a populace smart enough to work in those industries.

Under the proposed Democratic tax plan, which Gov. Risch refuses to consider, only homeowners would receive a property tax break. Under the Democratic plan, homeowners would see a larger break than under the Republican plan. Under the Democratic plan, school funding would be secure.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lauren,

You bring up great points.

I don't think I said or implied that sales tax hurt business. If I did, I certainly didn't mean to.

Actually, my point is this: primary homeowners are the ones who are really being hurt by property tax right now. Yet, Gov. Risch decided to give a property tax cut to EVERYBODY, but also RAISE the sales tax. Businesses do not pay sales tax. Regular Idahoans do.

According to the Idaho Center on Budget and Tax Policy, a non-partisan group, unless a tax payer makes more than 135,000 dollars a year, they will end up paying more in sales tax than they receive in Gov. Risch's property tax cut.

According to the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor, in 2005 the average Idahoan made $33,000.