It’s only fair
When people march against our country and our policies, carrying foreign flags and chanting “death to America and death to Israel,” this is known as insurrection.
As per protocol, Jan. 6, 2021, was called insurrection. They went after the Republicans at every turn.
Blocking bridges and roadways is illegal. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama should be tried for treason for allowing undocumented people and terrorists to enter our country. It is only fair that way. Anything else would indicate a double standard of favoring the party of the jackass over the party of the pachyderm.
Tom Marek
Kendrick
Public ed reliance
Property taxes and solutions are always a hot topic. Last year, the Legislature passed “Frankenbill” HB 292. The bill combined multiple methods of property tax relief to Idahoans (over three years) by offering direct relief to homeowners, all property owners and up to $100 million to school districts who use the funds in certain ways. The bill also repealed the March election date for school levies and bonds.
This year, the governor unveiled — and the Legislature supported — a $2 billion, 10-year plan to fund school infrastructure while trying to limit the impact to local taxpayers. That bill also repealed the August election date for bonds and levies.
These massive, catch-all approaches have downsides. The Legislature had to pass a bill this year fixing an error in HB 292 which artificially lowered how much charter schools received in funding per student. A number of trailer bills were combined to address funding formula issues ... .
By not taking the simplest approach to addressing property taxes — limiting the shift from residential to commercial, which is either indexing the homeowners exemption to inflation (last raised in 2021) or allowing county commissioners to do so — the state has inevitably taken on more of the burden and cost of public education by directly providing relief to offset rising home values. In addition, by deleting two of the four dates when bonds and levies can be placed on the ballot, school districts are now more reliant on the state for additional funding.
Gabriel Iacoboni
Lewiston
