Idahoans Need a Better Property Tax Break
By Senator Maryanne Jordan/(D-Boise) and Senator Grant Burgoyne/(D-Boise) 
As the weather turns cold, Idaho legislators are preparing for the start of the legislative session in January. Many are already hard at work on new laws designed to improve the lives of Idahoans. But there are proposals afoot that could cause real harm to taxpayers and local communities.
Last session, recognizing the impact of rising home values on property taxes, we tried to advance a bill to remove the cap on the homeowner’s exemption. That bill could not even get a hearing. Since then, legislators have gotten an earful from constituents about the rising cost of property taxes. Legislative leadership has appointed a working group to look at property taxes. That group will meet for the first time on October 21. The rhetoric we hear about city budgets being to blame for increases is misplaced. We urge the working group to look long and hard at the tremendous upward pressure state decisions and mandates put on local property taxes.
Over one third of tax bills in Ada County are bonds and levies for schools. These are necessary because of the legislature’s refusal to adequately fund education. Claims that funding has caught up with pre-recession levels don’t factor in inflation or Idaho’s incredible population growth. In 2018, with the opportunity to increase education funding by 100 million dollars, the legislative majority instead chose to cut the income taxes of wealthy Idahoans and over tax larger families. In 2015, the legislature capped the homeowner’s exemption resulting in a large shift of the property tax burden from commercial properties to homeowners. Indeed, Idaho homeowners are now paying over 60% (70% in Ada County) of the real property taxes collected in the state.  And this summer an interim legislative committee is attempting to force county property taxpayers to cover the cost of the state’s match for Medicaid expansion.
There are 200 cities in the state of Idaho, each with their own challenges. And those challenges are properly worked out at the local level. The legislature has already put strict limits on local budgets and should be trying to provide genuine property tax relief, not crippling local budgets for police, fire, emergency medical services, jails, parks and recreation, senior centers, homeless services, suicide prevention and mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, transportation, the environment, our schools and community college.
What does genuine tax relief look like? It’s restoring the homeowner’s exemption and once again indexing it against skyrocketing property values. It’s assuring that the state’s circuit breaker property tax relief program for low income seniors, the disabled and our veterans catches up with, and stays current with inflation. It’s income tax credits to reduce the property tax costs faced by renters and those who own their primary residences.  And it’s reforming the state impact fee law so that growth actually does pay for itself.    
Legislative level decisions have, directly or indirectly had a negative effect on property taxes all across the state. It is on that that we believe the working group and the Legislature should focus, not on limiting the ability of our local citizens to meet their local needs through their local governments.

Redneck Review!
No. 232 - 10/7/2019
The "Pied Piper" is piping again!  An appropriate headline for returning to the "Wow" part of last week's RNR!  If you recall, the bulk of that article called attention to the National Debt Clock telling us that our government had incurred another $70 billion of debt in just the two weeks between 9/16 and 9/30. That plus the "money drop" example in Review 230 paints a strong case that we are in for an aggravating bit of inflation in months and years ahead!
But the "Wow" section introduced then identified a rash of articles that appeared in the local Tribune that week.  It is intended here to look at that burst of "climate change" news, and in some way connect it to the old fable the PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN!  Hamelin had been overrun by rats, and for a fee, a  "piper" offered to lead them out of the city!  So he did, but the town refused to pay the fee, so he tuned up his pipe once again, and this time, led all the children out of the town and away from parents and community! SAD!
The claim is made here that much of our country is listening, as did the children of Hamelin, to modern day "Pipers" who are proposing policies that could be disastrous to our future! So read the articles and comments below,  then make a judgment at the end!
1) Tribune, 9/20. Headline in NW section: "Moscow students joining 'climate strike.' "  Their right, respected here, with added compliments to young folks taking an active part in their surroundings and their future!  BUT...  the long article tells us down below: "... the many young people felt galvanized by a 2018 report from a ... Panel on Climate Change stating that if Earth warms more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate change would become irreversible."  And that is the drum beat we hear over and over by those who would have us reduce or  ELIMINATE the fuels that supply 80 to 85% our power today. Eliminating them  would take us back centuries!
2) The 9/21 Tribune adds two more similar articles. First in the NW section: "Marchers demand action on climate change"  quoting a student that: "snow-covered peaks (In Glacier Park) now lay barren."  Student Robanna Brosten added climate change is "one of the most important things facing the world today."  And the same day in the A.M. Report, we read Swedish teenage Greta Thunberg spoke to United Nations representatives, representing "hundreds of thousands
of young people insisting the warming world can' t  wait any longer."  The Tuesday 9/24 Tribune quoted her saying "Shame on you" because the world had not acted fast enough to deal with the problem. Question:  Are these young activist students following Pied Piper like claims that that will lead them and their future down a road to disaster?
3) There is more! The Tribune, 9/26, front page, quotes a UN report:  "Oceans and ice are in trouble, so we're all in trouble." Scary statements follow:   "The planet is in hot water-literally, oceans will become more acidic... melting ice sheets will drive up sea levels...sea levels rising at a rate of .14 of an inch per year since 2006...(.14 =14/100 =7/50 < 1/5 of an inch!)... the world will see about 3ft of sea level rise by the end of the century..."  And more follows here!
But wait!  The 9/28 Tribune warns: "A chilly blast forecast for the region." "Weather events like these in September have only occurred a few times since 1900."  And the NW section of the 9/29 Tribune reads: "Storm brings... heavy snow to Montana." threatening   "to drop several feet of snow..."  Page 6C of the 10/2 Tribune reads "Montana rides out record-setting fall blizzard." Later, "Montana...is prone to heavy snowfalls, but not in early fall... 52"  fell in Browning over the weekend, well above the previous record of 36" in Sept of 1908."  (More to come!)
Jake Wren

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