Governor Candidates Zero In On State’S Education Problems

Governor

Candidates for governor this year are vowing to end Idaho’s distinction as the toughest place in the nation to build a school.

Republican Dirk Kempthorne, who faces Lewiston property manager David Shepherd in the primary, wants to lower the two-thirds supermajority required to pass school bonds.

Democrat Robert Huntley has proposed dropping Idaho’s sales tax from 5 percent to 4 percent, while eliminating exemptions. The upshot would be $72 million more in annual revenue, which Huntley would split between school construction and roads.

Democrat William Tarnasky is calling for raising Idaho’s sales tax to pay for building schools.

And Jack Wayne Chappell, an outspoken former cowboy who’s also running in the four-way Democratic primary, says raising the price of lottery tickets by 50 cents would do the trick.

The plethora of proposals from the candidates makes it likely that longstanding policy in Idaho will change as a result of the election.

“It puts it on the agenda,” said Jim Weatherby, a Boise State University professor and head of BSU’s public affairs program.

Currently, Idaho is the only state that both requires a two-thirds vote to pass a school bond, and puts no state money into school construction. That leaves local property taxpayers the full bill.

In many of Idaho’s poorer districts, where residents are less likely to be able to afford property tax increases, school buildings are deteriorating and often inadequate. In faster-growing districts, schools often are crowded.

The Republican primary race has been quiet, with challenger Shepherd, a former Democrat, taking a low profile. But that hasn’t stopped Kempthorne from proposing the controversial supermajority change as a centerpiece of his campaign.

“This is the right thing to do,” Kempthorne said shortly after launching his campaign.

Kempthorne, now Idaho’s junior U.S. senator, is calling for lowering the supermajority from two-thirds to 60 percent, but only if the vote is taken during a primary or general election. That’s identical to legislation backed by state lawmakers from both parties this year that failed to get out of committee.

The change would require amending Idaho’s Constitution, so it needs both legislative support and a vote of the people.

Huntley, a former state Supreme Court justice, represented a group of Idaho school districts who sued the state over inadequate funding. He’s been talking about eliminating sales tax exemptions for several years, but legislators have generally pooh-poohed the idea, saying each exemption has too strong a constituency.

Sales tax exemptions, according to the state Division of Financial Management, now total roughly $736 million a year. They’re granted for everything from motor fuels to legal services to used mobile homes to funeral caskets.

Huntley proposes eliminating 40 percent, in dollars, of the existing exemptions. That would raise enough money that even with sales tax lowered a penny, Idaho could afford to provide a 30 percent state match to local school bonds, Huntley said.

Tarnasky, a Hayden physician, said his plan would generate hundreds of millions, and is the only way to attack Idaho’s school construction backlog, which has been estimated to total $700 million.

A statewide poll sponsored by The Idaho Spokesman-Review and five other Idaho media outlets found overwhelming support for putting state funds into school construction, with the sales tax the most-favored source. Idahoans were evenly split on whether to lower the supermajority.

Donald McMurrian, a Twin Falls laborer also running in the Democratic race, called Huntley’s proposal to lower the tax “political hogwash.”

Politicians may talk about lowering a tax, he said, but, “Then they raise it.”

Chappell is convinced he has a painless answer. “Fifty cents more for lottery tickets will pay the bill,” he said.

Shepherd has not responded to letters or calls from The Idaho Spokesman-Review, but he earlier told the Lewiston Tribune he wants to solve more problems through volunteerism and community spirit. He said he’d reluctantly support a sales tax hike as a last resort to pay for school buildings.