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return to top of page Economy While our economy is currently strong, far too many people are being left behind. Poor wages, a lack of worker protections, and an emphasis on the old economy (agriculture, mining, timber, etc.) by the legislature has resulted in an economic boom that is eroding families ability to improve their economic status.
We must increase our minimum wage, enhance worker protections, encourage growth in the all important technology sector, and offer inexpensive community college and university education. We must also foster a healthy business environment to make our state an attractive place for technology companies to locate.
As housing and living costs soar, the legislature must adapt to the future instead of living in the past.
Taxes Property Taxes Residential home values are rising four times faster than any other property classes. To address this the legislature passed a minor ($25,000) increase in the Homeowner's Exemption (even that was a struggle to get passed). You, the homeowner, have been left out of the property tax equation. Then the Governor and legislative leadership figures it's time to pay back the special interests (they must believe that you got too much property tax relief from the Homeowner's Exemption). The bill passed in the special session on August 25th raised the sales tax 20% to pay for a tax cut for special interests (over 60% of the cut goes to properties other than owner occupied homes). Unfortunately almost 70% of sales tax is paid by individuals (remember all those exemptions for special interests) so you pay for the tax cut for special interests. In the end almost every owner occupied home pays more in overall taxes in the first year alone! And because the tax shift ignored the fundamental problem with property taxes - inflation of your taxable value - eventually every home will bear the same property tax burden while also paying the increased sales tax. The legislature must attack the problem of increasing taxable values by increasing the upper limit on the Homeowner's Exemption to $125,000 or $150,000. This will blunt increases in your taxable value and slow the growth in your property taxes to a manageable level. It is time to rebalance the scale in your favor.
Other Taxes The tax on groceries must be eliminated! We are one of only eight states that tax food. This is a punishing tax on our lower and fixed income families. There is talk of increasing the grocery tax credit. This is a half measure. Idahoan's need relief at the cash register . Paying sales tax on groceries and then wiating until tax time to claim your credit does not help lower and fixed income people. We must eliminate the tax on groceries now and forever. All Idahoan's must be taxed fairly with all groups picking up their fair share. The shift of taxes to the middle class must end!
Up to 85% of inmates in the state prison system have a substance abuse or mental health condition. Our state prisons have become the top provider of substance abuse and mental health treatment in the state. At a cost of $25,000/year and added state services for families left behind and impoverished, that's just plain dumb on crime! As a state we need to ensure that the people that we place in prison represent a substantial threat to society. If a person has a mental health or substance abuse issue, the answer is usually not incarceration. The answer is treatment.
We must reform our corrections system to incarcerate those individuals that represent a threat to society while developing alternatives for non-violent offenders that require treatment, training, or behavior modification. The time has come for our legislature to be smart on crime and stop wasting our precious tax dollars.
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