Senators debate impact of proposed tax cut…

The Senate Tax Committee is questioning Sen. Chuck Winder and deliberating on HB 563, the tax-cut bill for top earners. “I haven’t seen anything in here that indicates there would be a single job created,” Sen. Elliot Werk. “Have you or the proponents done any studies?” Winder noted that the Idaho Chamber Alliance testified in favor of the bill. “Various chambers believe that this will help their businesses,” he said. “I think we all know that we need to get people back to work, and I think this will help do that. … Part of this is that it does send a message out that we are willing, in order to … get people back to work, to lower our tax structure a little bit.”

“We’ve heard that this only benefits the rich,” said Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene. “Have we truly figured out who the beneficiaries are overall?” Winder noted that the governor proposed $45 million in tax cuts, and this is less at $35 million. “I think from the standpoint of most people in the state of Idaho … that a significant number of people will benefit, not just the rich, because the rich in Idaho may be someone that makes $26,000.”

The proposed $35.7 million tax would go only to those paying Idaho’s corporate income tax, and to top earners who now pay the state’s highest rate for individual income tax. For a single person who doesn’t itemize and takes the standard deduction, that equates to a minimum gross income of $36,260 to start getting any tax break. For a married couple filing jointly with no dependents, it’s $72,520. For a couple with two children, it’s $79,920. Just over 17 percent of Idaho income tax filers would benefit from the cut; taxes for lower earners wouldn’t change.

Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell, said if the $35 million wasn’t spent on tax cuts and was just left in reserves, it wouldn’t create any jobs.