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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Visionaries:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">This week in the state
legislature:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Property taxes will be the hot
issue this week.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>House Bills 421
(Homeowner’s exemption) and 422 (circuit breaker) are in jail (Crow’s Revenue
and Taxation Committee) at the moment.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Both bills were amended in the
Senate.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The amendments to 422
seemed rather straight forward.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In
HB421, the Homeowner’s exemption, the Senate placed an amendment to allow for
growth in the $75,000 according to the Idaho Housing Index.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Senators agreed this was more
appropriate than using the CPI.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Usually, the House just takes a vote to agree or not with Senate
amendments.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But, Representative
Crow wanted her committee to take control of these issues again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One possibility for HB 421 is that the
committee will recommend that growth be keyed to the CPI.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The least attractive possibility is that
the committee would argue for no index at all.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then the amount would stay as it is
until becomes sufficiently meaningless and is changed sometime in the
future.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">House Bill 859 will possibly be
up for discussion today.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This bill
proposes dropping the .3% property tax for schools, and replacing the revenue by
a 1% increase in the sales tax.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I have serious concerns about
this:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(1)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>About $297 million is removed in
property tax revenue, and 1% increase in sales tax provides only $250.7
million;<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(2)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The last time a legislative body did us
the “favor” of shifting school funding from property tax to the state general
fund, the amount of state funds was eventually capped – resulting in a loss of
revenue to the schools; (3)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
middle class and lower income earners are overall losers with this shift.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">It is my anticipation that the
House will approve this change, but the Senate is resisting.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Legislation is being proposed to
change the funding of community colleges.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This would require counties to use liquor funds.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Over half of the counties would lose –
here are remarks from one of our county officials:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dear</SPAN></st1:PlaceName><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Representative</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Tom</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Trail</st1:PlaceName></SPAN></st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> and
Representative Ringo,</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I received this
information this morning from IAC regarding the New Community College Bill
funding. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Latah</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> receives more in liquor monies than
is used for community college aid. The excess amount we get, the law
allows us to distribute to the Justice Fund (Sheriff, Prosecutor, Juvenile)
Departments and Current Expense. These dollars supplement our revenues to
pay for salaries and benefits for our employees. Unless there is
other revenue to replace the funds that we would not receive under this new
bill, the County will have a very negative impact. While we are very much
in support of Education, changing the funding structure would be a hardship to
our county.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Finally, check out HB
863.</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Representative Nonini (R-Coeur d’ Alene)
proposes in this legislation that high school students be required to obtain
parental permission before joining school clubs.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The real reason behind this will
probably not be discussed on the floor.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Shirley</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>