Discussion questions.
a. Is a 67% voting rule to raise tax rates an acceptable decision
rule?
b. Is the Social Security cost of living (<3%) an acceptable maximum
for increasing local expenditures for local public services (<11%)?
c. If a
50% majority agrees to increase expenditures and 67% fail to agree to
increase revenues, what are local officials to do?
d. If the
population of a town is decreasing or increasing, should the level of
police, fire, and emergency medical remain at the October 1996 levels?
e. Are the current property tax exemptions (homeowners, ag/timber use,
and circuit breaker) acceptable in perpetuity?
f. Should the state
take complete responsibility for funding public schools? What about
supplimental overrides? bonds for school bldgs?
g. Will
adequate local control remain if the state is determining 100% of
funding for local public education?
h. Will the state replace local
public school funds dollar for dollar; equalize funding across
districts; or something in between? (For example, running the $124
mil. in local
M&O through the current funding formula would transfer $30 million
from propety rich areas (Boise, CdA, Blaine cnty, Lewiston, McCall)
to the property poor (Pocatello, Blackfoot, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell &
rural dist.)
i. Should the legislature cut higher
education, health and welfare, and corrections by 25-33% or raise sales
or income taxes or a combination of cuts and tax increases if the One
Percent Initiative passes? Should ID begin to tax services?
j. Is the state prepared to accept
additional responsibility for public schools even as the federal
government is shifting responsibility of health and welfare to the
state?
Steve Cooke
Associate Professor
Dept. of Ag. Economics & Rural Soc.
University of Idaho
Moscow, ID 83843
http://www.uidaho.edu/~scooke/onepercent
208-885-7170 (phone)
208-885-5759 (fax)