Trib: Tax Shift Is All Risch Has

In this newspaper Sunday and elsewhere, Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, is defending his 2006 scheme to cut the $260 million school maintenance and operation property tax levy and replace about $210 million by raising Idaho’s sales tax from five to six cents. Why remind everyone? Unless you’re part of the Idaho 1 percent, odds are the M&O tax shift hurt you more than it helped. Eight years ago, Risch was Idaho’s second banana when Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was elevated to become President George W. Bush’s secretary of the Interior. As Idaho’s interim chief executive, Risch insisted on calling 105 lawmakers into a one-day special session in the dog days of August — and then ramming through his bill. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008 after Larry Craig retired. If, like Risch, you owned lots of property and earned wads of cash, this was a reasonably good deal/ Marty Trillhaase , Lewiston Tribune. More here .

Question: Do you think the Risch shift to fund school maintenance of operations via the sales tax instead of the property tax was good for Idaho?