BOISE, Idaho — It was a celebration for Reclaim Idaho back on Friday. After delivering about 100,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, Reclaim Idaho’s ‘Quality Education Initiative’ was officially certified for the November ballot.
The goal, to create a new tax bracket for any person earning more than $250,000 to help raise extra funds to invest in Idaho education. However, critics are now asking if that’s the only thing the initiative will do.
If you look closely at the language of the initiative, you may notice the tax rates listed for each tax bracket reflect the rates prior to the legislature’s tax cut this past session. For example, the current top bracket is now taxed at 6%, not the former 6.5%. The language was drafted before that was passed. It does beg the question, if the initiative does pass a citizen vote, does it raise taxes to the former rates, overwriting the recent tax cut? Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck explains.
“We asked that question of the attorney general's office, the attorney general's office response was effectively, if it is enacted the way it is drafted, it would disregard those 2022 tax cuts,” Houck said.
The timing of the situation is tricky, Reclaim Idaho was well into their campaign when the tax rates changed, so those new rates are not on the initiative. But, can the language simply be updated by the Secretary of States office or even Attorney General before ballots are printed in November?
“And the answer there again was no. The language was circulated in front of petitioners. The language that was circulated is the language that will go in the informational pamphlets that will go out to voters from our office in the coming months. So ultimately, back to the question, if enacted as drafted or will it disregard it appears that it would disregard those 2022 tax cuts,” Houck said.
Luke Mayville, Co-Founder of Reclaim Idaho, says he thinks that analysis is a mis-read. He points to the fact that the language they wanted to add and remove to state law are underlined and crossed out respectively. The tax brackets section is untouched, except for creating another tax bracket at $250,000.
“It's really baffling, really, to hear this opinion from the secretary of state, because it's just a basic misreading of how legislation works. We've consulted with the former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Jim Jones. He's told us that we're clearly correct that all this initiative provides for is for tax increases over that the amount of $250,000 a year,” Mayville said.
Mayville and Reclaim Idaho believe that only the underlined sections would be altered in law if the initiative passes, they have no desire to see the exciting tax rates raised.
“Absolutely not. The only intention of this initiative is to modestly increase taxes on the amount that Idahoans earn over their first quarter million dollars in a year. Or for a married couple. Half a million dollars in a year. That is all this initiative will do,” Mayville said.
Still, Houck says the guidance they’ve been given from the AG’s office is that if the initiative passes, the entire text would be enacted, not just underlined portions.
“We certainly can't change the way it was drafted once it's been certified. The Attorney General's office can't change the way it's drafted. Once it's certified, the drafters could have pulled the petition and changed the way it's drafted if they wanted to at some point in time. But it would have meant that they would have had to start over. So ultimately, they made the decision not to pull the initiative after the tax cuts were put in place,” Houck said.
Mayville says the petition makes it very clear in multiple sections that the only intent of initiative is to ask voters to add a tax bracket, not alter the tax cut the legislature passed.
“The petition also includes a long ballot title that includes a funding source statement and includes a fiscal note. All of these documents make it very clear that it's only income over a quarter million dollars a year that would be taxed by this initiative. In addition to restoring the corporate income tax rate,” Mayville said.
In the end though, Reclaim Idaho will have to get a higher power to side with them, as it stands the guidance from the AG’s office seems clear, all language is up for vote, not just the underlined portions.
“The only definitive statement on these questions would be the court, and if the legislature or the secretary of State or any government agency wants to undermine the intention of our initiative, we are prepared to take it to court. And we were very confident that we would prevail in court,” Mayville said.
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