Vote on sales tax increase likely

BOISE – Idaho voters apparently will be asked this fall to approve a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase to help pay for better schools.

Teachers, parents and Idaho Education Association staffers went door-to-door in every county to gather 70,000 signatures on initiative petitions aimed at getting the sales tax increase on the November ballot. The effort took three months and relied almost entirely on the work of volunteers and on teachers union staff, including the group’s executive director, James Shackelford.

The sales tax is currently 5 percent.

To qualify the initiative for the ballot, the group needed to gather signatures from 6 percent of Idaho voters – at least 47,881 people.

The fact that supporters were able to gather the signatures, apparently with a comfortable cushion, indicates many Idaho residents support the sales tax increase, Lauren McLean, manager of the Invest in Our Kids’ Education Campaign, said Tuesday. “The overarching reaction was, ‘It is time to make sure that our schools have adequate and stable funding,’ ” McLean said.

Once the signatures are validated, the secretary of state’s office can issue a ballot number for the initiative.

Next, McLean’s group faces the task of persuading voters to support raising the tax to 6 percent, effective July 2007. The association believes that would raise about $190 million per year – and would increase school funding by 18 percent to 20 percent.

If the initiative passes, schools would have to spend the money on specified items, and districts would be required to report each year to the public how the money was used.