Candidates favor school tax

BOISE – Both major-party candidates for governor said Wednesday that they support Proposition 1 on the November ballot, which would raise Idaho’s sales tax a penny to increase funding for schools.

“The voters will get the final say. And as for me, I will vote for it,” said 1st District Congressman Butch Otter, the Republican candidate.

Jerry Brady, the Democratic candidate, said, “I personally favor it and I’ll vote for it. … We’re under-funding education in this state.”

The gubernatorial candidates’ positions are of particular interest as some lawmakers and current Gov. Jim Risch push for a special session of the Legislature this summer to raise the sales tax for a different purpose – property tax relief.

Risch has declined to take a position on the education initiative, and he said he sees no connection between it and the likely special legislative session. “They are very different issues and they stand on their own two feet,” Risch said.

But some lawmakers see connections – particularly if, as has been discussed, the special session results in an advisory ballot measure to see if voters agree with raising the sales tax to cut property taxes.

“I think if the voters have a choice of a 1-cent sales tax increase to add additional funding for education, including raising teachers’ salaries, versus reducing property tax by 20 percent – I don’t think it’s any mystery which one they’re going to vote for,” said Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls.

Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “I think we adequately fund schools. … In light of what’s going on property tax-wise, it is criminal up here. … People are darn scared they are going to lose their homes.”

The way the initiative is written, voting for both concepts wouldn’t necessarily mean a double-whammy of a sales tax increase. The initiative states that if the Legislature has raised the sales tax before July 1, 2007, the date the initiative would take effect, then lawmakers would have to find ways to increase school funding by the amount the sales tax increase would have generated.

Currently, a 1 percent sales tax in Idaho raises about $200 million a year. That would mean nearly a 20 percent increase in Idaho’s current public school budget of just over $1 billion.

“Proposition 1 is about increased funding for our schools,” said Lauren McLean, chairwoman of the initiative campaign.

She was pleased to hear of the gubernatorial candidates’ support. “This initiative has support across both parties because it comes down to adequate and stable funding for our local schools, and our children will benefit,” McLean said. “It’s very clear, from Idaho Falls to Boise to Bonners Ferry, that people support that. That’s really what we’re finding.”

Brady, in a telephone interview, said the initiative “gives a lot of autonomy to local school districts under the plan, and local school districts know best how to use that money.”

Otter responded in writing to a reporter’s question about the initiative, and did not elaborate further about his position. His fiancee, Lori Easley, is a local school administrator and former teacher.

Libertarian Party candidate for governor Ted Dunlap said he opposes the initiative and prefers “encouraging the free market to help us out with this.” Constitution Party candidate Marvin Richardson couldn’t be reached for comment.

Former Republican State Sen. John Hansen of Idaho Falls, who is serving as treasurer for the initiative campaign, said, “Frankly, I don’t think it’s a partisan issue. I think we need better funding, more consistent funding for our education system.”

The initiative campaign cites statistics that show Idaho ranks low compared to other states in per-student spending and high school graduates going to college, and high in classroom crowding.

Hansen said, “I guess that is one indication of where you stand. But I don’t need those kinds of rankings to make the judgment that more money is needed. … I know superintendents and principals and teachers around the state, up and down the street I live on, and I know what they’re up against.”

Hansen said he hears constantly that educators struggle to provide schoolchildren with current textbooks and materials, and that schools can’t attract and retain the high-quality teachers they want. “That tells me they could do better with some extra funding,” he said.

The initiative requires the added school funding to be in addition to current spending, rather than replacing part of the existing school budget. It also requires that the money go to school districts to spend on any of nine specific purposes, including textbooks and supplies, reducing class size, adding aides, restoring programs that have been cut, and enhancing salaries and training for employees.

For years, the annual Boise State University Public Policy Survey has shown strong support among Idahoans for increased funding for education. The same survey also showed little objection to the state’s sales tax being at 6 percent when it was temporarily raised three years ago to ease the state through a budget crisis. The tax dropped back down to 5 percent last year.

Hansen, a former chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said, “The public is more in support of it than maybe some of the officials.”

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, current chairman of that committee, said he has concerns about the initiative. “I have an underlying philosophy that you don’t make appropriations by initiative, and essentially that’s what this initiative would do,” he said.

He added that if lawmakers already have raised the sales tax, they’d be hard put to find enough funding for a $200 million school funding increase. “It sounds to me like we’re supposed to pull a rabbit out of our hat, if that’s the case,” he said.