Idaho Mountain Express: Tax dodge

Friday, January 11, 2013

Tax dodge

Can Gov. Butch Otter seriously believe that Idahoans will welcome ditching a tax on business only to replace it with a local tax on individuals?
He has proposed eliminating the personal property tax levied on business equipment that generates $141 million annually to Idaho counties. In place of the tax, he wants the Legislature to grant counties—the beneficiaries of the business equipment taxes—the ability to levy local-option taxes. He didn’t specify what kind.
The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry has pressured the state for years to rid businesses of the tax. To be sure, calculating the tax is a boon for accountants and a pain for businesses, but what tax isn’t?
The echoes of the brainstorming session that must have preceded the idea unveiled in the governor’s State of the State message must still be ringing off the Capitol’s marble walls. The conversation must have gone something like this: “We hate taxes so let’s get rid of one and make IACI happy. We also hate being yelled at by county commissioners who’ll have to cut budgets, so let’s offer them the chance to replace the lost revenue with local taxes if approved by voters. Voila! Deal!”
This political sleight-of-hand could result in slashed services or individuals saddled with higher taxes while businesses laugh all the way to the bank. Ordinary Idahoans should make sure they are the ones with the last heehaw on this one.
comprar cialis
acheter cialis
buy cialis

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: