New tax bills address foregone balance, road materials

The House Revenue & Taxation Committee, in a very brief meeting this morning, introduced two new tax bills: One from House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, to require any non-school taxing district that uses forgone property tax increases from past years to impose a new increase to give notice and hold a public hearing; and one to exempt materials used in road construction from the sales tax.

The road tax exemption bill was proposed by Rep. Greg Chaney and Sen. Jim Rice, both Caldwell Republicans; they estimated it would cost the state general fund $9.5 million a year and cities and counties $1.2 million. Two committee members, Reps. Dan Rudolph, D-Lewiston, and Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, voted against introducing that measure. The vote to introduce Moyle’s measure was unanimous.