[Vision2020] Idahoans May Get to Vote on Expanding City Taxing Authority

[Tom Hansen]

Question, V-peeps:  Just how big of a municipal tax ya feel that Fuehrer Krauss and Moscow's Reich Chancellery will enact when this authority is granted?  Two percent?  Five percent?  Fifteen percent? 

I mean . . . Somebody's gotta pay the Steed-ster's greens fees.

Courtesy of the Magic Valley Times-News (Twin Falls) at:

http://magicvalley.com/news/local/twin-falls/idahoans-may-get-to-vote-on-expanding-option-tax/article_3fc6a354-bcbc-50fc-ada2-917e573ee26d.html
 
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Idahoans May Get to Vote on Expanding Option Tax
TWIN FALLS • In November, Idaho voters may have a chance to consider giving cities more taxing authority in the form of a local option sales tax.
Idaho sales tax, currently at 6 percent, is determined by the state, with the option for resort towns with populations below 10,000 — like Donnelly, McCall and Ketchum — to add a sales tax on top of it.
Proponents such as the Idaho Chamber Alliance want that option opened to any Idaho city. That wouldn’t mean an automatic sales tax hike, said Twin Falls City Councilman Lance Clow, one local option proponent. Instead, each city would decide whether to put the issue on a ballot, then let its citizens vote.
Each city would be able to decide how much the additional sales tax would be. In Ketchum, for example, retail sales have an additional 1 percent sales tax, while liquor and lodging have an extra 2 percent.
The proposal has come up before, but it’s not a popular idea among Idaho legislators, said Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls.
“I don’t think it’s ever gotten past being introduced into committee,” he said. So instead of going through the Legislature, proponents are trying to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot in November.
Why vote for it? A local option sales tax allows voters to have more control over what taxes they pay in their communities, Clow said. And for economic centers like Twin Falls, it allows cities to tax people who work and shop in the city, but who aren’t on the hook for the property taxes that typically pay for city infrastructure. The new revenue source would allow Twin Falls to reduce its property taxes, Clow said.
But opponents contend it’s just another tax hike — one that might drive customers to other markets, especially for big purchases. That’s the last thing businesses in Twin Falls need, Hartgen said.
Hartgen was also concerned that the sales tax would make city revenue too dependent on purchases. In an economic downturn, that would mean less revenue for the city, he said.
Hartgen said that Twin Falls’ revenue has increased in the past four years, thanks to economic growth and increased fees, but Clow said revenue has dropped.
Twin Falls City Manager Travis Rothweiler said overall revenues for fiscal years2008-2011 have fluctuated, though the actual tax-supported revenues have remained flat.
But you have to look at the big picture, he said. The municipal cost index, which shows how inflation affects the cost of providing city services, went up 10 percent between January 2008 and December 2011, he said.
In simplified terms, city revenues aren’t keeping pace with the increasing cost to keep the city running.
Hartgen still isn’t convinced that voters will get behind the idea.
“I think most people in this economy will say ‘Why can’t cities and counties live within their means?’” he said.
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Seeya later, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Spokane, Washington

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown
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