Isn’t it nice that the legislature brings on a new tax package and guess who gets the short end of the stick again? The lower and middle income taxpayers of Idaho. Yet year after year we vote the same people back into office and expect a different result. This is Einstein definition of insanity.
If you want change vote for someone who is not an incumbent. Once again those in the upper income brackets will get a break and everyone else gets stuck with higher taxes. We get the crumbs they get the steak dinners, courtesy of the lobbyists who pay for the legislators campaigns. Real median household income for Idaho 2014 the latest numbers we could find was $47,861 compared to that of the country which is $53,657. Real median income peaked in 2007 at $52,813 the year Butch Otter was elected Governor.
Our Governor sees fit to give out millions of dollars to companies for tax breaks under the pretense of bringing in new higher paying jobs to Idaho and we might get a $10 dollar break on our grocery tax. Idaho is still number two in minimum wage jobs in the U.S. and even though we have a 3% unemployment rate it is not real because we still have people working 2 and 3 jobs at below average wages to make ends meet, we still have people standing in line outside of food banks which struggle to keep the shelves stocked. Last year they saddled the lower and middle income citizens, those most venerable with a regressive 7 cents more in gasoline tax. Idahoans on welfare were only 14% in 2007 when Governor Otter was elected and are now running at 20.6%. We have seen our insurance premiums and deductibles double and triple since we put in a state healthcare exchange and we have seen no increase in competitiveness in the choice of insurance providers. To top things off Idaho still ranks 19th in ease of tax burden while all six surrounding states are in the top 10 according to The Tax Foundation
Now you tell me is this the way you grow an economy? The State had well over a $100 million dollars surplus in taxes last year, do you think this administration they even thought for a minute about giving any of that back to the hard working citizens of this state?
This administration has had nothing but failed policies and it’s not going to change till we change the legislature because we are stuck with a lame duck governor for 3 more years and I only prey that Brad Little or as I like to call him Butch Light does not get elected in 2018 or we will all be living on the streets and standing in line at food banks.
