Counties Will Seek Power To Put Regional Sales Tax On The Ballot
The Idaho Association of Counties will ask lawmakers to adopt legislation allowing a regional sales tax.
County officials at the association’s annual conference on Thursday adopted a resolution supporting a bill that would give local-option sales tax authority to groups of neighboring counties.
The proposal would allow counties in each region of Idaho to impose a sales tax of up to 1 percent, with the approval of voters, to provide property tax relief.
Five local-option sales tax regions would be created. A majority of the counties in a region - including the county that is the region’s economic hub - would be required to win voter approval to impose a tax.
The tax would not be collected in counties in which voters rejected it. Revenues would be distributed based on the property tax base and population of each county, and would have to be spent on property tax relief.
Twin Falls County Commissioner Dennis Maughan said the proposal is a potential option to voter approval of the One Percent Initiative in the November election.
“This gives them some relief from people coming to your economic hub and using your roads, your sewer systems and your indigent care.”
Maughan said the measure grew out of discussions among commissioners in Jerome and Twin Falls counties and the mayor of Twin Falls in consultation with Gov. Phil Batt’s office.
He said most of the county officials in Idaho like the proposal. But Nez Perce County Commission Chairman Earl Ferguson said he does not. He objects to distributing half of the sales tax revenues based on each county’s property tax base and the other half based on population.
“The population base is here and the money is spent here, so the money should stay here,” he said, referring to Nez Perce County. “If there is a local-option sales tax, it should be on an individual county basis.”
Senate Local Government and Taxation Chairman Jerry Thorne said he does not like the proposal because it would be difficult to distribute the sales tax revenues among counties.
“I think we are better off distributing property tax relief in another way,” the Nampa Republican said.
County officials also decided to ask state legislators to adopt legislation limiting agricultural property tax exemptions to land that is part of an actual agricultural enterprise.