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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>On
a different note: do folks think it is time to re-visit how we fund our public
schools? Below is Marty Trillhaase’s column from a couple of days ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Judy
Brown<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Idaho
Falls <i>Post
Register </i>Wednesday
March 18, 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:14.0pt'>The great mistake of 2006<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>By Marty Trillhaase<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>If
then-Gov. Jim Risch hadn't pushed his 2006 tax shift package in a rushed,
one-day special legislative session, we would have recognized more of its
flaws.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Cutting
schools from property tax support saved $260 million. Raising the sales tax
from a nickel to 6 cents on the dollar replaced $210 million. That equals $50
million in tax cuts, which went to wealthy homeowners and corporations.
Everybody else - especially low-income families who rent their homes - paid
more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Only a
deepening recession could reveal the Risch tax shift's true damage to the
schools.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Gov. C.L.
"Butch' Otter said the school budget must be slashed about $109 million
next year. Just having that debate tells you something about Risch's tax shift:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>It destabilized
school funding. Before Risch took office, schools relied on a maintenance and
operation levy for a quarter of their money; the state general fund provided
the rest. During its past decade, the amount of dollars this levy produced for
schools increased 77 percent to $293.5 million. Had Risch left well enough
alone, the state Tax Commission estimates the levy would have generated at
least $166 million more this year. Instead, schools are stuck with the sales
tax, down 8.8 percent, and the income taxes, down 14.5 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>The $114
million school stabilization account couldn't meet the challenge of a deep and
prolonged slowdown. Just keeping the schools afloat this year would have all
but depleted it, had the Obama federal stimulus package not provided another
$166 million.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Otter's
right. Schools will eventually run out of money when the stimulus and the
reserve account are gone. Call that a structural deficit - schools cost more
than we're paying. The Risch tax plan never replaced the $50 million yanked
from school support. It also removed property tax dollars dedicated exclusively
to schools. Now education has to compete with every other state agency for a
slice of a general fund that is shrinking by 12 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Nearly
three-quarters of Idaho voters approved Risch's plan in a 2006 advisory vote.
But the question was loaded. Nowhere in it did the ballot measure note school
funding had been cut $50 million and otherwise destabilized. In fact, the
measure promoted the tax shift as a way to protect funding for public schools.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Plummeting
home values and a shaky economy mean money will be too short to drop the sales
tax back to 5 percent even with a restored maintenance and operation levy. But
reviving the M&O levy might relieve enough pressure on the state budget to
accelerate lifting the unconscionably regressive sales tax on food.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Make this
the defining question of next year's campaign: Do we continue chopping away at
our schools or is it time to correct this mistake?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Marty
Trillhaase<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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