Fight Against One Percent Initiative Begins Campaign Rents Nic Space To Warn Of Impact Of Property Tax Cap

Ron Rankin’s not-so-heavy shadow darkened his opponents’ moment in the spotlight Monday.

Rankin disciple Dee Lawless stole the show at the first Kootenai County stop in a statewide campaign against Rankin’s property-tax-limiting initiative.

After two educators, an ex-state commerce leader and a regional business spokesman gathered in the foyer of the North Idaho College library in opposition to Rankin’s One Percent Initiative, Lawless stepped out of the small crowd.

The tiny Post Falls woman demanded to know why public employees were hosts for a press conference taking a stand against a tax-limiting issue in the foyer of a public building.

“You’re trying to defeat property taxpayers with their own money,” she said.

While that attack was not true - the No On One Percent campaign paid NIC $150 for the one-hour use of space - the interruption highlighted a political reality: With opposition to his initiative all but nonexistent for the past year, Rankin heads into November with lots of momentum.

Even critics recognize it.

Paul Anderson, Washington Water Power Co. spokesman and a representative of Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, said Monday he knows residents are frustrated by property taxes. But he believes Rankin’s initiative is the wrong answer.

The initiative would cap property taxes at 1 percent of a home’s assessed value after exemptions and would transfer some public school funding from property taxes to the state’s general fund. It would cap local government budget increases at the cost-of-living index used to calculate Social Security benefits.

Anderson said it would hurt business because income or sales or corporate taxes would have to be increased to make up for the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

“It’s not good for Kootenai County and it’s not good for Idaho,” he said.

Residents instead should support “thoughtful and aggressive” tax reductions. His group has attended budget hearings for the county’s 40-plus taxing districts to get them to hold the line on spending, he said.

Bob Bennett, president of NIC, said education in Kootenai County could be short in excess of $2 million if Rankin’s initiative passes. Cuts in education are bad for everyone, he said.

“If it costs a few dollars more, it’s the best investment people can make,” he said. “Tax is not a dirty word.”

And critic Jim Hawkins, Idaho’s retired commerce director, said the ballot initiative also would upset the state’s “stable, predictable, balanced” three-legged-stool approach to taxation: property, income and sales taxes each make up one-third of the state’s budget. Increasing sales and income taxes would hit small homeowners.

“It (Rankin’s initiative) is a way for a small group of well-heeled individuals to hoodwink Idahoans into paying their tax bill,” he said.

With only six weeks until election day, Hawkins said the anti-initiative campaign still expects to be able to convince voters they’re right.

Rankin on Monday argued that the criticism is nothing new.

“They’ve said the same thing over and over again,” he said. “The more they start giving these wild figures and wild numbers, the fewer people believe them and the more our support goes up.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo