Please consider:  For the last 40 years Idaho has been 49th or 50th in the nation in the funding of education. To coin a phrase, we have been the “Mississippi of the Northwest.”

Over the last 61 years we have pirated away the sales tax base by 89 special interest exemptions, so now the total exemptions cost approximately $600,000 more than the sales tax brings in.

When the sales tax was enacted Idaho’s economy was approximately 60% production oriented, that is agriculture, mining, and manufacturing and 40% services. That ratio flipped to 60% services and 40% production approximately 35 years ago, and yet the sales tax has never been amended to reflect that change in revenue sources.

In the last five years our income tax base has changed from being a progressive tax to a single tax bracket, with a reduction in its rate, thereby reducing the tax base by more than $4 Billion.

It is a fantasy to think that the economy will grow us out of this problem without major restoration of the tax base.  The chances that anything we can be proud of can happen without tax base restructure are slim and none, and Slim is out of town.

The people of Idaho need to find a leader who will put together a team of five persons, who in turn will put together a task force of 25 people from the legislature, the business community, the public schools, and citizens at large, who will:

FIRST: Present legislation at the opening of the 2027 session for some interim progress forward, such as an Alternative Minimum Tax to begin to address the problem; and

SECONDLY: Develop and present, as soon as possible, a comprehensive 10-year PLAN to address not only revenue for operating budgets, but also for facilities repair and upgrading and constructing new buildings

We will be “derelict in our duty” to the people of Idaho if we do nothing more than the usual thing of reacting to what the legislature did or did not do—we must PROVIDE LEADERSHIP!

Mr. Huntley was a member of the Revenue and Taxation Committee in the House and was one of five presenting the Sales Tax for Education. He has served on a Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force to update the tax structure.