The property tax as currently constituted in ID is
unfair in my view. It is unfair because it does not take into account
ability to pay nor are equals treated equally. Regarding the latter,
current residents are expected to pay the carrying costs of
infrastructure for new residents w/o being repaid. Regarding the
former, the curcuit breaker applies to low income elderly only.
Interestingly, the 1% Initiative would do nothing to change either
of these sources of unfairness. Except for just using property taxes
less, the 1% does not address either issue of fairness. For this
reason, I have concluded that the 1% initiative is intended to use
peoples' dissatisfaction w/ property taxes to cut state and local
gov't expenditures.
Steve Cooke
> Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 11:03:20 -0600
> To: "Steve Cooke" <scooke@marvin.csrv.uidaho.edu>
> From: stf1014@decit.if.uidaho.edu (Brad Eldredge)
> Subject: One Pecent and City Budgets
> I am a member of the Idaho Falls city council. I have been involved
> with three city budgets now and can assure you that, at least in Idaho
> Falls, we do not "bloat to fit the bag". In fact, we have cut the city tax
> rate four years out of the last five. Every city department took a real
> dollar cut this last budget and we let five employees go. In spite of this,
> we are accused of being profligate with taxpayer's money and out of touch
> with fiscal realities.
>
> In the last three budgets, we have had an open house in May, a
> public hearing in August, and three budget committee meetings. All of these
> meetings were advertised and open to the public. We had 12 people show up
> to the open house, three to the public hearing and none to the committee
> meetings. I have a hard time reconciling this lack of interest in the
> budget process and the One Percent Initiative. It seems to me that the
> proponents of the 1% Initiative are counting on the public's lack of
> interest in local government to destroy the budget process. They claim that
> people can vote for override levies and budgets, but they know that it is
> unworkable in practice.
>
> It is true that people do not like the property tax. But that is
> all local governments have to work with. If people are really upset about
> the property tax, they should ask the State to allow local government some
> other way to raise the revenue needed to provide services. In Idaho Falls,
> we raise about $12 million through the property tax. Our general fund
> budget is over $20 million. The difference is made up from fees for
> services, fines, licences, transfers to the general fund from the city's
> enterprise funds (electric, water, sewer, garbage, etc), and transfers from
> the state sales tax and gas tax. These transfers amount to almost $5
> million. But the single largest expense for the general fund is for public
> safety - police and fire/ambulance. If we include the mandatory police and
> fire retirement payments in the public safety category, then these items
> consume over $14 million or 67% of the general fund! Note that this expense
> is more than the amount collected by the city from property tax.
>
> All the other city services that our public values so highly -
> parks, recreation, the library, street repair and maintenance, the zoo,
> youth programs, planning and zoning, etc., have to make do with what is
> left. But these are the programs that make the quality of life in Idaho
> Falls what it is. Without them, Idaho Falls would be a much poorer place -
> and I don't mean monetarily.
>
> To give you an example of how the public thinks about property tax,
> one of our council members recently attended an AARP meeting in Idaho Falls.
> The people there took the time to let her know how much they disliked the
> property tax, how it fell so much harder on the retired and how unfair it
> was. Then one of them said, "And oh, by the way, when is the city going to
> build us a new executive golf course?" You can see the disconnect that
> people have about the property tax. They like the services that the
> property tax brings, but they don't like to pay it.
>
> To finish, I would like to say that the property tax may be disliked
> but it is all local government has right now. If you really want a change,
> talk to your state senators and representatives to give local government the
> right to raise these funds from some other source.
>
> - Brad Eldredge, Ast. Professor
> Chemical Engineering
> University of Idaho at Idaho Falls
> brade@decit.if.uidaho.edu
>
>
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)