vision2020@moscow.com: Re: Latah legislators town meeting
Re: Latah legislators town meeting
Steve Cooke (SCOOKE@marvin.csrv.uidaho.edu)
Wed, 8 Nov 1995 10:50:54 PST8PDT
Dear Visionaries,
I spoke with Maynard Miller last night at the Health and Environment
Commission meeting. He asked me if I has any suggestions about tax
issues that could be address in the upcoming legislative session. I
suggested three or four issues.
First, remove the 3% growth cap on
property taxes raised by local property taxes so that infrastructure
can grow to meet the needs of cities, counties, and school
districts.
Second, make provisions for cities to levy impact fee on
new residential construction, so that growth pays for the off site
demands on the infrastructure (water and sewer treatment plants, new
schools, widening roads, additional police and fire, etc.).
Third, if the legislature picks up addition property tax
liability, then make sure additional sales or income taxes are raised to cover it.
(Last year the legislature took 44 million off property taxes for public school,
and assumed that the growth in the economy would cover the additonal
liability. In August, the Gov. announced a 2% holdback on
appropirated funds because the tax returns were slower than
projected.)
Finally, I suggested that the legislature extend sales
taxes to include a tax on services and
return this money to cities and counties in the form of revenue sharing.
Of these suggestion, Maynard was particularly interested in the
impact fee proposal. He suggested that it be labeled an new resident capital
buyin program. Developers will resist this proposal
because it will increase the cost of houses and, depending on the
market conditions, will reduce returns to housing development.
Liberals will resist it because it increases the cost of housing to low income
people (though provisions can be made to prevent this from
happening).
Well, a fella' can dream,
Steve Cooke
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