[Vision2020] GOP Erred [Surprise!] in Minnick Tax Break Charge

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (August 23, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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GOP erred in Minnick tax break charge 
Sali opponent hasn't even been billed for this year

BOISE – The Idaho Republican Party erred this week when it accused 
Democratic U.S. House candidate Walt Minnick of improperly benefiting this 
year from a homeowner's tax exemption on a residence located outside the 
district he seeks to represent.

Minnick is running against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Sali in the 
1st Congressional District, which covers Idaho's western and northern 
regions. The boundary dividing the state's 1st and 2nd Congressional 
Districts cuts through western Boise.
 
Minnick has owned a home on Hearthstone Drive in Boise's Foothills area in 
the 2nd District since 1994, but last October moved to a rental home in 
the 1st District. Only owner-occupied homes can receive the break, so 
Minnick's vacant Hearthstone Drive home no longer qualifies.

In his criticism, GOP state Chairman Norm Semanko wrote that Minnick "paid 
his 2008 property taxes earlier this year and claimed a property tax 
exemption for his primary residence, located in Idaho's 2nd Congressional 
District."

Contrary to Semanko's claim, however, Minnick hasn't paid his 2008 taxes 
or benefited this year from the break that allows all Idaho homeowners to 
reduce their taxable value by as much as $100,938.

"Those taxes aren't going to be due until December of this year," Robert 
McQuade, the assessor in Ada County, said Friday. "The bill hasn't even 
been sent out yet."

The GOP's effort to make residential real estate a campaign issue is 
another indication that the Sali-Minnick contest is getting nasty, in part 
because many believe it to be Idaho's most-competitive race of 2008. 

Minnick is now selling his vacant Hearthstone Drive home, and aides said 
once that transaction is complete he plans to build a new home on property 
he's owned for two decades located west of Idaho's capital city in the 1st 
District. When the Hearthstone Drive home was assessed for taxes in 2008, 
the homeowner's exemption was still in effect because it renews 
automatically. McQuade said it's common for people who move not to inform 
him they've left.

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Office Politics 

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali could be forced to move his district office from a 
downtown Boise building because its location violates U.S. House rules. 

Sali took over office space in the Hoff Building on Boise's Bannock Street 
from former Idaho Rep. Butch Otter when Otter became governor and Sali was 
elected to Congress in 2006.

The office is in the 2nd Congressional District, while Sali represents 
Idaho's 1st Congressional District. The boundary dividing the districts 
cuts through western Boise.

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Seeya at Farmers' Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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