That's
what happens when lots of people get involved in deciding how we tax
ourselves through federal, state and local representatives and how we
allow those public funds to be allocated back out to our communities.
That's what happens when we stop participating and let the most
powerful corporate interests give money to our elected officials, who
in turn allow them access to write tax laws and decide how to allocte
public funds.
Join in this forum. Read the linked articles and post your own. Attend
hearings and other events so you can make sure what matters to your
family and community is reflected in tax and budget policies.
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Your generous contributions make this work possible.
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ArticlesForumsLinks
| UV Eye Opener, Week of Mar. 24 - 28, 2008
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| posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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Last
Monday, it looked like the legislature might complete its work by
Friday if the majority leaders in both the House and Senate put petty
differences aside, worked across party lines and worked with governor
to resolve the final issues. But that was too much to ask. Senate and
House majority leaders had a lot more turf battles to fight.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Mar. 17 - 21, 2008
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| posted on Sunday, March 23, 2008
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The Senate hightailed it out
of town on Thursday. Ostensibly, they were frustrated with the House
for holding up legislation they wanted. Some said they did not want to
be in town when the final list of who is challenging them for election
came out on Friday.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Mar. 10 - 14, 2008
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| posted on Monday, March 17, 2008
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Rapid growth has consequences: congestion, pollution and – as we saw tragically again this week – traffic deaths. In the Treasure Valley, community organizations, local governments and many civic leaders have worked long and hard to come up with solutions. In the 1970s, when resort communities asked for the option to invest in community assets using sources other than property taxes, the legislature granted them local option taxing authority.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Mar. 2 - 7, 2008
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| posted on Sunday, March 09, 2008
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Last week, Republican legislators cut short a public hearing on the public's business and boarded a private plane owned by a wealthy corporate executive to attend a fundraiser on the other side of the state. He made sure they made it back to Boise in time to vote for the bill he was lobbying for. When a reporter pressed legislators to explain what they were thinking, they all gave different answers.
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| UV Eye Opener, Weeks of Feb. 18 - 29, 2008
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| posted on Saturday, March 01, 2008
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On Thursday, if you
walked by the House Revenue & Taxation Committee you would have
seen a pack of legislators fawning over their latest corporate friend:
a French corporation called Areva, Inc. A majority of lawmakers on the
committee said a giddy “Oui! Oui!” to two bills that give away a big
chunk of Idaho’s tax base to entice the company to build a facility in
Idaho.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Feb. 11 - 15, 2008
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| posted on Monday, February 18, 2008
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This week, before legislators could start setting Idaho’s budget, they
had to decide whether and how to adjust state employees’ compensation.
Even in years of economic expansion, the legislature has told the
thousands of people who work for us that Idaho does not have enough
resources to invest in them on par with their peers in the private
sector. “Someday, there’ll be roses,” they kept promising.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Feb. 4 - 8, 2008
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| posted on Monday, February 18, 2008
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Two
huge events overshadowed virtually every political story in Idaho this
past week: the massive public response to Sen. Barack Obama’s visit to
Boise on Saturday morning (over 14,000 people were in the arena and
over a thousand listened outside) and the unprecedented turn out for
the Democratic caucuses on Tuesday evening (over 21,000 people,
breaking the record by more than four times). The fact that Idaho was
hit by three more snow storms during that time did not dampen the sense
that Idaho political history was being made. Yes, the legislature still
met this week but according to several Democratic legislators their
Republican colleagues were a bit jealous they couldn’t participate in
the fun.
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| UV Eye Opener, Week of Jan. 28 - Feb. 1, 2008
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| posted on Sunday, February 03, 2008
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Historically, many legislators were
family farmers and they stayed in Boise throughout the session. Lots of
snow simply reminded them that they should be in no hurry to adjourn
and go home to plant their crops. Big conglomerates now own much of
Idaho’s farmland and most legislators have other vocations. Today, a
majority of legislators who live in north and eastern Idaho travel home
each weekend. More than a dozen of them may have questioned the wisdom
of that last week as they struggled with snow storms to get back to
Boise. Yes, it is a record snow year and on Wednesday the Boise school
district cancelled classes for the first time since 1991. Early
predictions of a short session now seem naively optimistic.
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| UV-Eye Opener, Week of Jan. 21-25, 2008
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| posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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Rep. Nicole LeFavour pointed out in
her blog that on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Idaho legislature
made history by printing a bill to reduce discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender identity. Sen. Curtis McKenzie, however, told his home town paper he wants a
majority of his committee to commit to vote for the Human Rights bill
(SB 1323) BEFORE he will schedule a hearing!
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| UV-Eye Opener, Weeks of Jan. 7-19, 2008-
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| posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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For the 11th legislative session, United Vision for Idaho will be trying to bring you an update of Idaho’s legislature from a progressive perspective. Be sure to pass it on to your friends and colleagues. Please give us your feedback – when you agree and when you don’t – and be sure to send us information on what you're following.
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Jim Hansen
Posts:21
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| 30 Jan 2006 4:59:09 PM |
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The legislature has now printed a number of different bills that affect
property taxes. The assumption within the statehouse is that nothing
significant will pass (and given the way Rep. Crow runs the House
Revenue & Taxation Committee, most probably won't have a hearing).
Lets use this forum to identify the best bills, talk about why they
matter and brainstorm ways to make sure we help people participate.
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Jim Hansen
Posts:21
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| 31 Jan 2006 6:30:26 PM |
Alert
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Roger Sherman, UVI's program director and Judy Brown, our Director of
the Idaho Center on Budget & Tax Policy have been at the hearings
this week.
Here is what Betsy Russell reports of yesterday's hearing
"Here’s my tally: 23 people testified before the House Rev & Tax
Committee this morning, six of them twice, and only one out of the
whole group opposed increasing the homeowner’s exemption or expanding
the circuit-breaker exemption for low-income seniors. That was Idaho
Farm Bureau lobbyist Russ Hendricks, who spoke against the homeowner’s
exemption.
Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, co-chair of an interim
legislative committee that held hearings on property taxes all over the
state, told the House committtee, "The homeowner's exemption is
something that is foremost in people's minds. ... I think it's become a
political issue and I think it's one that we will need to deal with." See more of Betsy's coverage at her blog
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/boise/
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Jen Grush-Dale
Posts:2
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| 18 Apr 2006 9:09:56 PM |
Alert
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Well, now that the legislature is over and they have passed a property
tax bill, I have a co-worker who wants to know: how will the
Legislature make up for the funds they will not get now through
property taxes. Since I can't answer that question, I thought I'd pose
it to all of you.
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Judy Brown
Posts:7
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| 18 Apr 2006 10:20:38 PM |
Alert
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The expansion of the homeowner's exemption has minimal impact on total revenues collected -- only about $4 million less for public schools through the maintenance and operations levy, which school officials say they can accomodate without undue hardship. This is one of the main reasons UVI opposed transferring the m&o levy to the sales tax, which could have hurt public school funding a lot.
Expanding the homeowners exemption rebalanced the sharing of property taxes between homeowners and other types of property (businesses, farms etc.) rather than reducing total property taxes collected.
The idea of reducing the m&o levy and replacing it with a sales tax increase is likely to be discussed again next year, and now we have to figure out if there is a way to make this option acceptable both in terms of fairness and in terms of its impact on public schools -- if not, then UVI will continue to oppose it.
A long answer to a short question! |
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