Henderson wants to pass more tax relief; Harriman maintains message in third run

Democrat Lyndon Harriman’s message hasn’t changed in years: More education funding, better health care and increased wages for Idaho workers.

This year, his third shot at the Idaho House, Harriman, 53, thinks these issues are finally at the forefront and voters are ready to put some balance in the Legislature.

“Policy is made behind closed doors, and there is no expression for the need of the people,” said Harriman, who is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, to represent District 5.

Henderson beat Harriman in 2004 after ousting Rep. Charles Eberle in the Republican primary. Harriman also ran in 2002 against Rep. Don Pischner, R-Coeur d’Alene.

Henderson touts his experience as a Post Falls mayor, Kootenai County commissioner and longtime businessman. His jobs have ranged from owning a newspaper to working for a pharmaceutical company. He adds that he works well with the other lawmakers in District 5, specifically Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Post Falls.

At 83, Henderson argues he still has the stamina to get the job done. He works out daily and will be married in December.

He and Nonini, who also is seeking re-election, already have bills in the works to provide more property tax relief to homeowners – averaging property values over five years and freezing property taxes for residents who have owned their homes more than 15 years. Henderson also is pondering a measure to give veterans disabled in duty a property tax exemption based on the percentage of their disability.

Henderson said the August special session of the Legislature, which resulted in removing school maintenance and operations costs from the property tax rolls and replacing the money with a 1 percent sales tax increase, was only a start. He said these other components must happen before homeowners will get real, permanent tax relief.

Yet he acknowledges that the proposal to freeze property taxes for longtime Idahoans will encounter stiff opposition. But he maintains that people who bought their homes before real estate prices skyrocketed deserve relief.

“We may have a tough time selling it but we plan to be pretty aggressive,” he said.

Harriman, a Canfield Middle School teacher, adamantly opposed the Republican-orchestrated special session and the sales tax increase. He supported the Democrats’ alternative that would have given property tax relief just to homeowners, not businesses, therefore negating the need to raise the sales tax. He said removing school maintenance and operation costs from property taxes will make what he calls an already inadequate school-funding mechanism even shakier. He said shifting the cost to the sales tax only hurts the poorest people.

“People will end up paying more money,” Harriman said. “There’s no way around it.”

Henderson refutes the Democrats’ argument and said their plan had potential constitutional concerns, meaning homeowners likely wouldn’t have seen property tax relief for years while the state Supreme Court sorted it out.

Henderson said he reviewed the records of 10 property owners across the county and that their taxes were cut from 27 percent to 65 percent as a result of removing the maintenance and operations costs from the property tax rolls.

Henderson used his own Post Falls home as an example. His property value increased $80,500, or 60 percent. But he said his taxes only increased 1 percent.

Harriman wants to eliminate the sales tax on food and opposes the Republicans’ idea to instead raise the income tax credit on groceries. Henderson and his party argue they eventually want to eliminate the sales tax on food but it will take several years to define “food” items and then find the money to replace the revenue. An interim step that would bring people relief the quickest is increasing the food credit residents may claim each year.

Harriman doesn’t believe Republicans ever will support eliminating sales tax on food.

Harriman supports Proposition 1, also on the Nov. 7 ballot. It would force lawmakers to increase funding for schools by an amount equal to what a 1-cent sales tax increase would raise. For next year, the latest estimates put that figure at $219 million. He said that would put public pressure on lawmakers to make education funding a priority.

Henderson opposes the measure, arguing it doesn’t have any plan for where the money would come from and it makes teacher salaries a priority over those of all other state employees.

Harriman also wants to increase the minimum wage and make health care more of a priority, requiring the state to use every federal dollar possible. As a disabled veteran of the U.S. Navy, Harriman said he wants to ensure veterans don’t have to wait up to a year at times for medical checkups. He thinks Idaho should go to insurance providers and ask them to become preferred providers, meaning the state would channel business to them. That would give insurance companies more of an incentive to offer coverage. He also wants to cut down on health care paperwork.