Two Senators Push For Sales Tax Credit

Two Republican state senators stepped up their attack on Gov. Phil Batt’s $40 million property tax relief plan Tuesday, pushing instead for a sales tax credit.

If the bill goes through, said Sen. Hal Bunderson, “A lot of money will be leaving our state and going right into the pockets of absentee landlords and property owners as well as federal coffers because property tax relief is considered taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service.”

Bunderson, R-Meridian, and Sen. Grant Ipsen, R-Boise, said the property tax relief plan also would favor absentee landlords over Idahoans who rent their homes.

Bunderson and Ipsen were on the short end of a 5-4 vote in a Senate committee Monday that sent the property tax relief plan to the full Senate for a final vote.

In a statement Tuesday, the two said a $26 increase in the state’s grocery tax credit - from $15 per dependent to $41 - would provide better tax relief. They called for the Senate to delay consideration of the property tax measure until the sales tax credit and other alternatives could be considered.