{"id":3283,"date":"2012-01-03T10:45:38","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T17:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=3283"},"modified":"2012-01-11T12:22:44","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T19:22:44","slug":"rep-maxine-bell-were-not-in-a-position-to-lower-taxes-at-this-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/01\/03\/rep-maxine-bell-were-not-in-a-position-to-lower-taxes-at-this-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Maxine Bell: We’re Not in a Position to Lower Taxes at This Point"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

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

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

Rep. Maxine Bell (R-Jerome) is co-chairman of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee<\/a>.\u00a0 JFAC is the committee that crafts the annual state budget.\u00a0 A retired farmer and school librarian, Bell was first elected to the Idaho House in 1988.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/span> Are you approaching the session with a strong sense of what the main issues and discussions will be?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think, as a rule, the issues come along once you get there and people start talking to each other about what they\u2019ve learned out in their districts.\u00a0 And then if you look at some of the issues that failed last year or didn\u2019t come to fruition, you can almost assume that some will be back.<\/p>\n

I know the Chambers of Commerce are looking at some tax changes, some tax issues, and I don\u2019t know how far they\u2019ll push those.\u00a0 But the overriding issue \u2013 when there\u2019s lots of money, or when there\u2019s not enough \u2013 is always the budget.\u00a0 Trying to separate the needs from the wants and apportion out the limited resources, that will be the overriding issue.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>In terms of tax changes, what is being discussed?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I hesitate to speak for the Chambers of Commerce, but I would assume that — part of keeping the economy growing is to make sure that our corporate tax is in reason with the states around us.\u00a0 I know many of us feel that our corporate tax should be somewhat lower, but we\u2019re not in a position to lower the taxes at this point.\u00a0 Most of the businesses, as I understand it, in Idaho, are small enough that they file as income tax, not corporate tax.\u00a0 So it could be that as they look into that issue, perhaps a better way will be to drop the tax rate, period.\u00a0 That would help smaller businesses.<\/p>\n

I remember those years when Micron was the biggest corporate taxpayer, and when they sneezed, the State of Idaho got pneumonia.\u00a0 You have to be very cautious and careful that you make a climate that\u2019s conducive.\u00a0 A good solid tax base and a good fair tax base for businesses to come in, because we have a good workforce.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>At the same time, the state doesn’t want to give so much that it harms itself by decreasing tax revenue.<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>That is true.<\/p>\n

[legislator leg_id=IDL000043 align=right]<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>When you say, \u201cdropping the tax rate\u201d do you mean \u201clowering the income tax rate\u201d?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Ours is medium high, and a little high for the states around us.\u00a0 The more money you can leave in people\u2019s pockets, the healthier your economy is because they have an opportunity, then, to choose to send their children to college, or to improve and enlarge their businesses.\u00a0 It just makes sense.\u00a0 You don\u2019t take away from people their buying power, because that\u2019s where the economic growth is in the state.<\/p>\n

The last time we dropped the rate, the sad thing was the year we dropped the rate was the year that we had the first of the economic busts.\u00a0 We flip-flopped $500 million that year.\u00a0 And part of it was because we dropped the rate when we thought everything was booming and the bubble burst and we got a double hit.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>In terms of tax-related issues, what else do you expect?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Well, Rev and Tax<\/a> is a very powerful committee, and an astute group of people.\u00a0 That’s where any tax issues will have to begin.\u00a0 You might keep an eye on perhaps the cigarette tax.\u00a0 You can possibly blame 30 percent of everything we put into Medicaid on illnesses related to smoking, to tobacco use, but the other side of that coin is that you raise taxes on a small group of people to pay for general government.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/span> In your mind, what can the legislature do to create jobs?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think we are in the best position we could ever be in, in an economy that is not creating jobs.\u00a0 We have an educated workforce, a good work ethic, and a stable and fair tax system.\u00a0 And we are not in debt.\u00a0 Our budget is balanced.\u00a0 That\u2019s the best the legislature can do.\u00a0 The next job goes, obviously, to the governor, and he\u2019s good at that — finding markets.\u00a0 Then you have the community colleges, and you have a whole network in all the counties of counsels and people helping from the Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce helping to identify places where they can talk to folks and bring them in. But — the whole world is in an economic downturn.\u00a0 We brought Chobani yogurt<\/a> in, and we\u2019re just getting that set up and then we learn Simplot is closing<\/a> a plant in the Treasure Valley, because they\u2019re retooling and modernizing.<\/p>\n

There are so many people out in the communities that work on this activity.\u00a0 For my part, as a legislator, I just have to make sure I don\u2019t put any undue regulations on them, difficult taxing situations, and try to do the best I can with education funding.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>In other words, you think the legislature is doing what it can do.<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think we\u2019re doing what we can do.\u00a0 I think as we continue to find more resources for education as the economy strengthens, and we backfill some of those places where we\u2019ve not been able to have adequate funding, then we will be a good partner in that, yes.<\/p>\n

The businesses I\u2019ve seen come into my area \u2013 they didn\u2019t just drop here.\u00a0 Someone went out and recruited them and sold the place to them and they were able to get them here, and that doesn\u2019t just happen.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>You mentioned reinstating funding to areas like education that have seen cuts.\u00a0 In your mind, what are the really key areas that the legislature should address, assuming there will be more funding available in coming years?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I would tell you, honestly, there are places that will never be the same.\u00a0 This is a different-looking government right now, a different-looking economy.\u00a0 There may be some places in the budget that simply will not be there.\u00a0 But of course there\u2019s always growth in K-12, and in K-12 we\u2019re looking at increasing technology.\u00a0 That will continue to be an expense for us as we go forth.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/span> When you say that the allocation or funding for some areas has permanently shifted, what are those areas, in your mind?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I can\u2019t come up with anything specific.\u00a0 I just think that those people in our agencies, our government agencies, have restructured the way they do business, to a certain degree.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019ve done things differently and with fewer employees.\u00a0 Maybe they\u2019ve stopped doing some of the things that were not in code.\u00a0 Therefore we will never go back and replace funding for that structure that is no longer there.\u00a0 I think the structure has changed, because it had to change with the difference in funding.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/span> In terms of the budgeting process, what are your expectations?\u00a0 Last year the governor based his budget on a fairly austere revenue projection.\u00a0 Is that what you expect again this year?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Yes.\u00a0 We\u2019re down.\u00a0 The fiscal year 2012 is five months in.\u00a0 And four of five have been under revenue expectations.\u00a0 That\u2019s a trend I don\u2019t like.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t look good.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t look promising.\u00a0 With that in mind, we didn\u2019t promise anything we couldn\u2019t afford, so the governor has not had to do any holdback.\u00a0 But at this point I don\u2019t see anything being refilled.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see anything being added onto any of the agencies.\u00a0 I just see a very flat, basic, do-the-best-you-can-with-what-you-have budget coming out.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/span> To those who might be hoping for a reinstatement of certain Medicaid services or education funding, would you say, \u201cThat\u2019s probably not going to happen this year\u201d?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I can\u2019t see it at this point.\u00a0 What we do in February is we start budgeting, and that\u2019s 18 months out.\u00a0 That\u2019s for 2013.\u00a0 And that starts the first day of July.\u00a0 And you can see that without a crystal ball and with the activity around us, with the states that are in trouble and the countries that are in trouble around us, you just have to assume that we are not out of this depression or this downturn that we have been in.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>And you would say that leaves the Legislature with relatively few options?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think so.\u00a0 You can\u2019t raise taxes on people that are already not able to pay taxes.\u00a0 I\u2019m very concerned about the folks out there who can\u2019t even pay their own mortgages, or keep shoes on their own children.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a matter of people not being able to pay taxes, and not being able to buy.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why your sales tax is way down.\u00a0 You can imagine that people are not able to buy what they would like to because they are trying to just simply pay their bills.<\/p>\n

The major focus will be putting together a budget so the state can continue to run: taking care of the most extreme issues, and making sure you don\u2019t put in any false expectations anyplace, and making sure you don\u2019t leave anything that will harm anybody.\u00a0 And I just hope that the people who are out trying to get the economy going can keep trying to find jobs for people who don\u2019t have them.\u00a0 There\u2019s no silver bullet. It\u2019s just pretty simple math.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This interview has been edited and shortened.<\/em><\/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. Rep. Maxine Bell (R-Jerome) is co-chairman of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee.\u00a0 JFAC is the committee that crafts the annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":3289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,56,29],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283"}],"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=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3625,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions\/3625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}