Hearn: Let’s put ‘surplus’ to work
In a My Turn column for the Coeur d'Alene Press Thursday, Coeur d'Alene Trustee Tom Hearn comments:
Whether our political beliefs are conservative, liberal or somewhere between, meeting the needs of the people in our communities should be at the heart of our discussions.
An article in the Coeur d’Alene Press on July 15 discussed the surplus in the Idaho budget leading to some of our legislators calling for a repeal of the tax on groceries. While I don’t have a problem with that because it will help the poor and middle class, I do think that a few important points are missing from the discussion.
First is the repeated tactic in both the Idaho Legislature and in the administration of overestimating expenses and underestimating tax revenues, thus leading to a tax surplus and another call for a tax cut. Often left out of the discussion is the serious funding problems with many public services in Idaho that could use these “excess” funds (that really aren’t excess when vital state services are chronically underfunded). More here.
