Friday, March 28, 2008

Takes money to make money


Idaho's Legislature has busily tried to transfer public money into private coffers by offering corporations like Albertsons and the French company Areva big tax breaks for staying here or locating here. It has just as vigorously restricted communities from investing in themselves.

A case in point:

The Idaho House recently approved a bill to increase voter approval for resort cities' local option sales tax from 60 percent to 66 percent. Representatives seem to want to be able to claim support for local control of taxation while really refusing to cede any power from the state to the local level.

Colorado stands in stark contrast to Idaho's self-defeating tax policies.

Next fall the city of Aspen, Colo., is going to ask residents to approve $92.5 million in debt to be borrowed against future revenue and used to develop 415 affordable housing units over the next 8 years.

The city's real estate transfer tax and the housing portion of its local sales tax would back the debt.

Aspen/Pitkin County now does $2.3 billion in retail sales—30 percent more than the Sun Valley/Blaine County area. It has developed 2,760 affordable housing units, tallies 1.4 million skier days a year and boasts two relatively new hotels, the Ritz Carleton Aspen Highlands and the Hyatt Grand. Aspen's investment has paid off.

That compares to Sun Valley/Blaine's 68 affordable units, 362,317 skier days and zero new hotels.

Idaho legislators should quit trying to subsidize big corporations, unshackle its cities and unleash the power of Idahoans by allowing us to invest local sales taxes in our own communities and ourselves.




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