{"id":6186,"date":"2012-04-02T10:45:43","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T16:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=6186"},"modified":"2012-04-17T17:32:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T23:32:07","slug":"session-wrap-the-tax-plans-that-failed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/04\/02\/session-wrap-the-tax-plans-that-failed\/","title":{"rendered":"Session Wrap: The Tax Plans That Failed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5333\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Inside the Idaho State Capitol dome.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5333\" title=\"Statehouse 2011 044_SamanthaWright\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright-300x236.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright-620x488.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright-220x173.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/03\/Statehouse-2011-044_SamanthaWright.jpg 1522w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Samantha Wright \/ Boise State Public Radio<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside the Idaho State Capitol dome.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Legislature&#8217;s main duty is to create a\u00a0 budget that spends less than it takes in.\u00a0 Lawmakers did.<\/p>\n<p>They also agreed to a more than <a title=\"Idaho\u2019s Top Earners Will Get A Tax\u00a0Break\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/29\/idahos-top-earners-will-get-a-tax-break\/\" target=\"_blank\">$35 million tax cut<\/a> for Idaho&#8217;s top earners. They&#8217;re setting aside about $35 million for the state&#8217;s general fund reserves<strong>,<\/strong> and they agreed to an almost $35 million pay increase for teachers.<\/p>\n<p>But a handful of other spending\/tax measures didn&#8217;t pass:<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Some Idaho Lawmakers Want To Capitalize On Skyrocketing Internet Retail Sales\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/02\/22\/some-idaho-lawmakers-want-to-capitalize-on-skyrocketing-internet-retail-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\">Streamlined Sales Tax<\/a>: This is one of those perennial efforts that fails each year.\u00a0 Some lawmakers want to set up a system for the state to collect Idaho&#8217;s 6 percent sales tax on items purchased online.\u00a0 Idahoans are already required to pay this tax, but are supposed to do so by reporting online purchases on their annual tax forms.\u00a0 <em>The Idaho Statesman<\/em> says the state is losing about $35 million a year because it doesn&#8217;t have a &#8216;streamlined&#8217; system.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Idaho Lawmaker Wants to Make it Tougher to Raise\u00a0Taxes\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/02\/02\/idaho-lawmaker-wants-to-make-it-tougher-to-raise-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Super-majority Tax Bill<\/a>: Thirty-three Representatives wanted to make it tougher for any new taxes to pass the Legislature.\u00a0 The super-majority bill would have required two-thirds of the Legislature to sign off on new taxes or tax increases.\u00a0 The measure didn&#8217;t make it<del><\/del> past the House.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Your Guide To Idaho\u2019s Tobacco Tax\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/tobacco-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cigarette Tax Increase<\/a>: The American Cancer Society and 25 other interest groups wanted the Legislature to raise Idaho&#8217;s 57-cent cigarette tax to $1.82.\u00a0 Idaho&#8217;s current tax rate is one of the lowest in the country.\u00a0 The plan did have some support among lawmakers, but in the end, <strong><\/strong>never made it out of committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><del><\/del>These failed bills will likely return in one form or another in 2013.\u00a0 Would you support any of them?<\/p>\n<p><em>We originally reported the Legislature&#8217;s only constitutional duty is to pass a balanced budget.\u00a0 That statement is too narrow and doesn&#8217;t consider other details like passing laws and maintaining government.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Legislature&#8217;s main duty is to create a\u00a0 budget that spends less than it takes in.\u00a0 Lawmakers did. They also agreed to a more than $35 million tax cut for Idaho&#8217;s top earners. They&#8217;re setting aside about $35 million for the state&#8217;s general fund reserves, and they agreed to an almost $35 million pay increase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":5333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,24,94,114],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186"}],"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=6186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6289,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186\/revisions\/6289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}