<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div><div><div><span>Courtesy of today's (March 29, 2012) Spokesman-Review.</span><br><span></span><br><span>---------------------------------</span><br><br><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); line-height: 21px; "><h1 style="overflow-x: visible !important; overflow-y: visible !important; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 28px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Senate panel mulling tax bill</h1></span></span></div><div><span>Otter seeks cuts for top earners, business<br></span></div><div><span><br></span></div><div><span>BOISE – A Senate panel is due today to help decide the 2012 Legislature’s last critical question: Will Gov. Butch Otter win his coveted $35 million tax relief bill, or will more-cautious lawmakers direct at least some of that cash toward savings, to be used if the economy sours again?</span><br><span></span><br><span>The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee has agreed to an 8 a.m. hearing on Otter’s bill, which passed the House but languished for weeks in the Senate.</span><br><span></span><br><span>In the world according to Otter, Idaho’s economic turn of fortune has left it flush enough to direct about $35 million over five years toward teacher salaries, $35 million toward rainy-day savings – and give $35 million back to taxpayers.</span><br><span></span><br><span>In the world according to Sen. Tim Corder, the economic downturn is barely a thing of the past, so Idaho would be wiser to put the money in reserve accounts that helped save the state during the darkest days of the recession.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Corder, R-Mountain Home, chairs the nine-member Senate committee, where he’ll oppose Otter’s plan, in part because it provides a family of four earning $100,000 with just $71 in tax relief – not enough to really make a difference, he says.</span><br><span></span><br><span>“My vote is ‘No,’ ” Corder told the Associated Press.</span><br><span></span><br><span>In his State of the State speech in January, Otter said he wanted tax relief.</span><br><span></span><br><span>As Otter’s newly appointed Department of Commerce Director Jeff Sayer said last month, Idaho must freshen up its “window dressing” – to create the best first impression possible for scouts hired by companies looking for attractive places to relocate.</span><br><span></span><br><span>To start, Otter decided the best pep-up would be cutting top individual income tax and corporate tax rates to 7.4 percent, down from 7.8 percent for individuals and 7.6 percent for corporations.</span><br><span></span><br><span>House Speaker Lawerence Denney said Wednesday the session will be done this week, if the Senate goes along.</span><br><span></span><br><span>On the fence – but leaning toward supporting the tax cut – is Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene.</span><br><span></span><br><span>“I want to put every dime I can into savings,” Hammond said. “But I also appreciate, as we start climbing out of the hole in the economy, one of the things we can do is create a better first impression.”</span></div><div><br></div><div><span></span>---------------</div><div><br></div><div>Idaho House Bill 563</div><div><br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; "><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="z-index: 15; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; "><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 15px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: justify; ">INCOME TAXATION - Amends existing law to reduce the individual income tax rate for Idaho taxable income over $7,500 to 7.4% and to reduce the corporate income tax rate to 7.4%.<br> </td></tr></tbody></table></span><div><a href="http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2012/H0563.pdf"></a><a href="http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2012/H0563.pdf"><a href="http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2012/H0563.pdf">http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2012/H0563.pdf</a></a></div><div> <br><span>---------------------------------</span><br><span></span><br><span>Seeya round town, Moscow.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Tom Hansen</span><br><span>Moscow, Idaho</span><br><span></span><br><div>"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."</div><div><br></div><div>- Leona "Queen of Mean" Helmsley</div><span></span><br><span></span><br></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></body></html>