Shooting range tax break proposed
BOISE – Nonprofit shooting ranges would not have to charge sales taxes under a bill approved Thursday by a House committee.
HB 686 is one of several tax exemptions moving through the Legislature despite calls to re-examine all exemptions.
“If we don’t charge a sales tax to these shooting clubs, who’s the next one to come?” asked Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, one of three Revenue and Taxation Committee members who voted against the bill.
A state audit last year showed that nonprofit shooting ranges weren’t charging the sales taxes required by law. The bill’s backer, Rep. Bill Sali, R-Kuna, said requiring them to pay those taxes takes away money that could be spent on upgrades to the facilities.
The bill would apply retroactively to July 1, 2002, to prevent shooting ranges from having to pay back taxes.
Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, supported the bill.
“We just gave entertainment a big old kiss the other day. Let’s kiss the guy with the gun,” she said, referring to HB 497, the sales tax rebate for filmmakers in Idaho that the House approved Wednesday.
Rep. Leon Smith, R-Twin Falls, supported the shooting range break but warned about the precedent it could set.
“I see that we might be opening Pandora’s box with this,” Smith said.
But Barrett said the box has been open for quite a while.
“We play with that little thing all the time, and we usually survive,” Barrett said.
Lake, the committee’s vice chairman, disagreed. “Pretty soon you’re doing it for rodeos, you’re doing for fairs, you’re doing it for all sorts of things,” he said after the meeting. “So I just don’t think we need to open that door.”
The committee also approved HB 687 from prominent lobbyist Skip Smyser, former chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. That bill gives gliding kit vehicles the same sales tax exemptions enjoyed by interstate commerce trucks.
Gliding kits provide the basic frameworks for big trucks and are used for repairs. Although classified as repair parts, trucking company representatives say they deserve the same tax break as interstate trucks. Sales tax revenue on the kits totals about $240,000 annually, Smyser said.
The committee agreed, approving the bill with just one nay, Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise.
Tax exemptions have been a big topic in the Legislature in recent years.
Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, tried to introduce a bill two weeks ago that would allow the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee to review all tax exemptions and determine whether they’re still justified. It was rejected by the Senate State Affairs Committee, which refused even to hold a hearing on the measure.
Lake said there’s a problem with giving that sort of power to a committee, because tax exemptions are the responsibility of the entire Legislature.
“The Legislature should be the ones reviewing it,” Lake said.
He said that could happen shortly.
“I think we will see probably a major review of all exemptions in the very near future,” Lake said.