Mike Ferguson heads the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy.
Mike Ferguson was Idaho’s chief economist for 26 years. He left the post in 2010, and heads the new Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, a non-profit that analyzes state tax and budget policy. StateImpact asked Ferguson to review the governor’s budget proposal, and the policy priorities it contains.
Q: This seems like a different budget than those we’ve seen in recent years. Do you agree?
A: Well, it has the beginning of a recovery. Instead of dealing with an ever-declining revenue stream, we’re seeing revenues recover. I think one could potentially question how the resources are allocated within that budget.
Q: Right. We start to see what the governor’s spending priorities are now that there’s money to allocate, right? Continue Reading →
The Division of Financial Management released its monthly general fund revenue report today with mixed news. First the good, sales tax collections exceeded expectations for the month of December, due in large part to the holiday shopping season.
“Idaho gross sales tax collections in December were $94.9 million, an increase of 9.0% over the previous December. On a fiscal year-to-date basis, gross sales tax collections are up 4.0% from the same period last fiscal year. The amount of sales tax accruing to the General Fund in December 2011 was $81.6 million, which was $2.0 million more than the forecast.” – DFM Report
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s budget staff will spend the first few days of the legislative session explaining its budget proposal to lawmakers. Division of Financial Management Administrator Wayne Hammon will officially start that work tomorrow. Hammon met with reporters today to outline the administration’s key budget requests.
Here are some important points:
Governor Otter is proposing a $2.6 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2013, that’s up more than $126 million from the budget lawmakers approved in 2012
Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter is delivering his annual State of the State Address right now to a joint session of the Idaho Legislature. You can watch the speech live here and follow along with a copy of the speech. We’ve highlighted some important passages and included more detail.
An Idaho lawmaker who is being sued by the federal government for unpaid taxes claims the IRS was wrong in asking him to pay eight years’ worth of business deductions. The Coeur d’Alene Pressreports Rep. Phil Hart (R-Athol) responded to the federal government’s lawsuit through court documents Thursday.
Here’s The Coeur d’Alene Press report:
The Internal Revenue Service said that Republican Rep. Phil Hart owes nearly $550,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties. The four-term lawmaker from Athol, who has a history of protesting taxation, believes that income taxes are unconstitutional.
The U.S. Justice Department sued him in October, alleging that he fraudulently transferred the title to his home in northern Idaho to keep the federal government from seizing it to help pay his tax bill. Federal tax lawyers say tax liens on the property should be foreclosed, Hart’s home sold and the proceeds should go toward satisfying his debts.
The Idaho Legislature convenes January 9th. In advance of the session, we interviewed several legislative leaders and asked them about Idaho’s economy and what the state could be doing to boost growth and job creation.
Rep. Mike Moyle (R-Star) is Majority Leader of the Idaho House of Representatives. Moyle farms and manages farm ground, and is part owner of a storage facility, among other business interests. He was first elected in 1998.
Q: What are your personal priorities for the upcoming session?
A: I’d like to see us incentivize job creation in the State of Idaho, and that includes looking at our tax structure and how we tax individuals and corporations within the state. We need to make some changes there so we’re more competitive with surrounding states. I’d like to see us try to move down that road a little bit.
Every surrounding states have got a better climate to do business with, or to live in, or a lower tax structure on the income side than Idaho, which is not a good place to be when we’re trying to get businesses and jobs to come here. Continue Reading →
This is a boom time for agriculture, and Idaho’s upswing far outpaces national growth. While total U.S. net farm income soared from 2010 to 2011, rising by 28 percent, a report released today shows the state’s net farm income rose by 88 percent in the same period.
Report co-author Paul Patterson, an agricultural economist, says there’s a simple explanation for the disparity. “If you look at the crops that we have in our mix compared to the U.S., we have better overall price increases for the crops that we produce in Idaho compared to the nation as a whole,” he said. Continue Reading →
On January 9th, Idaho’s Legislature will convene in Boise for its annual session. StateImpact Idaho will be focusing our coverage on how proposals and policy decisions impact Idahoans and the area economy. We’ve been interviewing leading lawmakers in the run-up to session and have compiled various resources to help you get involved or stay informed.
These posts are a series of Q & A’s we did during the weeks leading up to the 2012 Legislative session. Each conversation focused around job creation, tax policy and the state budget.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
