There's a article in Friday's Idaho Statesman about the sorry state of affairs for Health and Welfare . This comes on the heels of the many stories about the sorry state of affairs for public schools. I was asked by an IPEA member yesterday whether this budget crisis is real or if the legislators are lying to us. And, she went on, if it is real, whose fault is it?
The budget crisis is truly real. Revenues are way down. But whose fault is it, anyway? First, its not the fault of the feds. In fact, if it weren't for the federal government, our state budget would be in far worse shape than it is due to the federal stimulus money that we have received.
So let's blame Governor Otter. Well, he surely deserves some blame. And let's blame the state legislators. Many of them also deserve some of the blame.
But, I'm sorry to say, a large share of the blame lays squarely on the shoulders of the Idaho voters, and yes, that means you. I say that because this crisis was years in the making. Had we elected Governors and legislators who were interested in a reasonable and fair system of taxation, Idaho would be in a much different position as we faced this recession, and public employees wouldn't be in so much danger of losing their jobs and Idaho citizens wouldn't be at such risk of losing services.
Instead we have elected people to represent us who have consistently increased the share of the tax burden of the working class and middle class people in Idaho and shifted it off the wealthy people, big business and large landowners. That's just the way it is. This didn't happen overnight. This has been the trend for decades now.
So those of us who just go to work everyday and get a regular paycheck keep paying property taxes on our modest homes (unless we've lost them), sales tax on everything we buy (including food) and as much state income tax as a person making four or five times what we make. But when the recession hit, we couldn't handle the entire burden of financing state government by ourselves. Too many of us have been laid off. Many of us have our homes in foreclosure and are no longer paying property taxes. And most of us simply don't have the money to engage in any discretionary spending, so sales tax revenue is way down.
The only way out of this terrible recession is to revamp our entire tax system to make it more fair. If the burden were distributed more fairly, we wouldn't be in this mess, and the only way out is to fix it. But the only way that's going to happen is if the Idaho middle class voters push the legislators to do it and elect others if they won't.
This year's legislators are nibbling around the edges of the problem, but no one seems willing to take a big bite. For instance, legislation came forward that would require a review of all of the millions of dollars of tax exemptions every five years. Excuse me, we can't wait five years. They should just throw them all out, and then make everyone who wants a tax exemption apply again and make their case. There would be an immediate increase in tax revenue as all those people who were exempted started paying taxes. The revenue would gradually balance out as legitimate exemptions were awarded again, but it would give us some breathing room and we would end up with a more equitable system in the long run.
Rep. Shirley Ringo (D) Moscow, had the courage to suggest a temporary surtax for people who made more than $250,000 a year, but most of the legislators wouldn't take that seriously. And why not? Excuse me, if you make that much money, you certainly should pay more income tax than someone making $25,000 a year.
And how about those people with cabins in our most pristine wilderness areas who pay next to nothing in leases for the property that we own? Why not increase those leases to market value? There is some consideration of this idea. Let's see where it goes.
These are just a few examples of what could be done if our elected Idaho lawmakers would get serious and start worrying more about us, the middle class voters, instead of getting reelected. Hey, maybe if we would stop being complacent and push them a little harder, they would start to realize that the path to reelection may just involve doing what's right for the middle class Idahoan.
