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Idaho lawmakers propose collection of tax measures

Idaho Democrats and Republicans are now working on legislation that includes cutting tax rates, adding tax credits, and addressing property tax exemptions.

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers are now working on several pieces of legislation aimed at changing Idaho tax rates. It’s early in the process but lawmakers are beginning to shape ideas that could get a vote in the coming weeks.

“The main objective is to give back money to the citizens. It’s about a $285 million tax relief,” said Majority Leader Republican Mike Moyle.

A team of House Republicans is co-sponsoring a tax bill, House Bill 199, that looks to make cuts across the board on Idaho taxes.

Two major highlights of the tax bill, cutting Idaho’s sales tax from 6% to 5.3% and cutting income tax rates for all tax brackets.

“We got to give some of this money back. I think this gets us started down the road and I think we need to do some stuff on property tax too, but this gets us started down the road of giving some of this money back. It needs to be back in the citizens' hands, grow the economy. We don’t need to be sitting on it here or spending it here, it’s better off with the citizens,” Moyle said.

The bill does also eliminate the grocery tax credit, which is usually about $100 per person, as a sort of a tradeoff.

“What we are trying to accomplish is broad base to help the overall economy and help people with their purchases across the board versus just a few items,” Moyle said.

The proposal would reduce the tax rate for all brackets. For example, the highest tax bracket, people with more than $11,760 of taxable income, would see a cut from 6.925% to 6.5%. The lowest bracket would see people with less than about $1,500 in taxable income get a tax cut from 1.125% down to 1%.

“We are trying to give back relief to everybody, which that bill does, but also make Idaho look better for businesses to come here because our income tax rates are way too high,” Moyle said.

Idaho Democrats are also working on their tax proposals. Assistant Minority Leader Democrat Lauren Necochea explained the Democrats' platform on Wednesday.

“Tax credits for working Idaho families. Second, lower property taxes for homeowners and seniors and third investment in our children,” Necochea said. “We are proposing a package of tax and budget solutions that target benefits for our hardworking families, children, and seniors.”

Specifically, proposals from Idaho Democrats as a part of their Idaho Working Families Agenda include increasing the child tax credit from $205 to $250, increasing the homeowner’s property tax exemption from $100,000 to $125,000 as well as allowing for an annual adjustment on that cap, and investing more funds into education.

The legislation on those topics from Democrats is drafted but still needs to go through the committee process.

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“We are hopeful that on some of them we might be able to gain co-sponsors from the other side of the aisle and we are trying to recruit that,” Necochea said.

On property tax, Republican lawmakers say that is certainly something they want to address. Rep. Moyle said now that the ball is rolling on the tax front, legislators can start working through ideas.

“I hope this starts us down this road and we will see what happens. Now that ideas are out there you will hear the proposals and we may have some ideas that are better than what’s in that bill and if they are maybe we can come up with something that works together with everybody,” Moyle said.

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