{"id":2900,"date":"2011-12-20T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T19:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2012-01-11T12:25:50","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:25:50","slug":"idaho-senate-pro-tem-the-key-to-job-creation-is-a-stable-tax-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2011\/12\/20\/idaho-senate-pro-tem-the-key-to-job-creation-is-a-stable-tax-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho Senate Pro-Tem: The Key to Job Creation is a Stable Tax System"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Idaho Legislature convenes January 9th.\u00a0 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Idaho Legislature \/ State of Idaho<\/p>

<\/p><\/div>\n

Sen. Brent Hill <\/a>(R-Rexburg) is Senate President Pro-Tem.\u00a0 Hill joined the Idaho legislature in 2001.\u00a0 His colleagues voted him President Pro Tempore at the start of the 2011 session.\u00a0 Here is our conversation:<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What could the state be doing to help with job creation?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Last year we passed the Hire One Act<\/a> to incentivize employers to go out and hire employees, offering them some tax credits if they meet certain criteria.\u00a0 And we also had some tax exemptions and so forth to help stimulate the economy and job growth, particularly small businesses.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t in the same situation as the federal government.\u00a0 Anything we give away in the form of tax incentives or tax breaks affect the bottom line immediately.\u00a0 We\u2019re not allowed to go out and borrow money the way the federal government does.\u00a0 And so, we may be doing things that give us some growth in the long term, but could make us suffer more in the short term, and as you know we\u2019ve already been suffering quite a bit.\u00a0 There are some ideas to possibly reduce tax rates over the long-haul, not doing it immediately, but as a phase in.\u00a0 By broadening the tax base, getting rid of some exemptions, credits and other things, and actually lowering the rates so that everyone benefits instead of the legislature picking and choosing who the winners are and who the losers are.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s something that would be good for the whole, because it goes across the board in helping all tax payers, both individuals and corporations.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>The Hire One Act is set to expire in 2012, do you think the legislature will extend that?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I\u2019m not sure the Hire One Act will go on.\u00a0 When we do credits or exemptions, just by a matter of policy, we try to put a sunset on them so they can be reviewed at a point in time and determine if they\u2019re accomplishing what they were intended to accomplish.\u00a0 If the time is over that we need to do those.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we have an expiration date on the Hire One Act<\/a>.\u00a0 If we can determine its doing some good and that there may be some jobs created because of it and the private sector is using those savings in making greater investments in business, I think you\u2019ll see it extended, not on a permanent basis but again on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What can the state do to get people back to work and create jobs?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Jobs, I think are a top priority for the state and the federal government.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the state has fewer resources in order to help create those jobs.\u00a0 The best thing we can do at the state is to provide a business friendly environment.\u00a0 And we do that by keeping a stable tax structure, that\u2019s not going to be raised when things get bad and dropped when things get good. \u00a0A tax structure that businesses can plan on, and keep our regulations to minimum, those regulations eat up a lot of profits and prevent them from expanding and creating more jobs.\u00a0 If we can create a business friendly environment in Idaho, which we already have, keeping our resource costs low, I think you\u2019ll see many businesses expand in Idaho as the economy improves as well as other business coming from other states that are burdened down by heavy regulations, particularly.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Are there specific tax credits or exemptions the state should phase out?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>One of the big ones is the Idaho Investment Tax Credit<\/a>, which is a credit given to businesses when they purchase equipment.\u00a0 And that can be used to offset to up to half of their tax liability.\u00a0 So, even though our corporate rate is 7.6 percent, many corporations are only paying 3.8 percent, because they\u2019re only paying half of the rate because of the investment credit.\u00a0 If we lower the tax rate, for small businesses as well as corporations, I think you\u2019ll see we\u2019ll have to phase out the investment credit at the same time we lower the rate.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What are your budget priorities?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>We\u2019ve set our priories and made them clear.\u00a0 Our first priority is to restore some of the cuts that went to public education.\u00a0 Education is an investment in the economic future as well as the future of our citizens.\u00a0 For the most part, our legislature is very committed to our public education system.\u00a0 It was the last to receive cuts, and it will probably be the first to see some restoration of those funds they\u2019re losing out on.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ll completely ignore everything else, and it doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ll completely restore public education before we start looking at some other programs, because there are some other vital programs that have been hit pretty hard.\u00a0 But certainly, first priority is our public education system.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What about Medicaid funding?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>We had some significant cuts to Medicaid<\/a> last year.\u00a0 Some of those were a matter of policy, some adult services particularly, that possibly the legislature will not restore.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to evaluate the mood of the legislature in that regard.\u00a0 Certainly, there are some services that are vital to the less fortunate and vulnerable in our society.\u00a0 And they too have experienced some cuts, although not as big in some other areas.\u00a0 We want to preserve that safety net, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anyone\u2019s intention to eliminate that.\u00a0 And we need to buoy it up a little bit more.\u00a0 When the federal government came in with the stimulus funds, they helped us more with Medicaid.\u00a0 When that help was withdrawn, we just couldn\u2019t make it up all at once.\u00a0 I think we\u2019ll see some restoration in that area, but probably not to the same extent as education.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>What, if anything, will the state do if unemployment insurance benefits<\/a> aren\u2019t extended?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think the whole unemployment issue is a very touchy issue.\u00a0 As you know, last year we extended those unemployment benefits, it was not a unanimous decision.\u00a0 With director Madsen\u2019s comments<\/a> about not extend those benefits, I think it will be difficult to extend those in the upcoming legislature regardless of what the federal government does, unless the federal government is going to help pay more of the bill.\u00a0 Our unemployment fund is already in a deficit situation, we\u2019ve already had to borrow money from the federal government to pay out the unemployment benefits we have so far.\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a limit to what the legislature is probably willing to do as far as the debt they\u2019ve got to incur to the federal government in order to extend those benefits much further.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Do you think unemployment benefits should be extended?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Well, that\u2019s a hard question to answer at this point, not knowing what the federal government is going to do.\u00a0 Again, the federal government is talking about picking up more of the tab and so forth.\u00a0 I think there are people who are truly looking for work, and it makes it a very difficult situation for them.\u00a0 However, I know of situations where people have turned down jobs because they can make more on unemployment.\u00a0 You hear those horror stories, and it scares lawmakers from time to time.\u00a0 But, again, unemployment has been a safety net, and has been extended far beyond what was originally intended and regardless of what I think, it will have a tough hall going through the legislature this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Idaho Legislature convenes January 9th.\u00a0 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. Sen. Brent Hill (R-Rexburg) is Senate President Pro-Tem.\u00a0 Hill joined the Idaho legislature in 2001.\u00a0 His colleagues voted him President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":2909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,116,42,74],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2900"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3636,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions\/3636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}