Posted on 09/06/2019 1:40:48 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
A group that got Medicaid expansion on the Idaho ballot last year says it has started another initiative to raise money for public schools by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Reclaim Idaho on Wednesday announced the initiative proposal to raise taxes by 3% on individuals making more than $250,000 or married couples making more than $500,000.
The plan would also raise corporate tax rates from 7.4% to 8%, the same as from 1987 to 2000.
Reclaim Idaho says that will raise $170 million for K-12 public schools while reducing the need for school levies through property tax overrides.
"The politicians in Boise give away our tax dollars to out-of-state interests while Idaho teachers are forced to pay for their own supplies," said Reclaim Idaho Executive Director Rebecca Schroeder in a statement. "Idaho's children find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, and property taxpayers in rural districts shoulder an unfair tax burden."
The group submitted the initiative petition to the secretary of state's office last week. The attorney general's office will check the initiative to make sure it passes constitutional muster.
After that, more than 55,000 registered voters will have to sign a petition for the initiative to make the November 2020 ballot.
Reclaim Idaho succeeded in getting Medicaid expansion on the ballot last year and it passed with 61% of the vote. It's not clear how a ballot initiative to raise taxes might do if it makes the Idaho ballot.
"I do think that it is challenging to get tax increases passed," said Boise State University political scientist Jaclyn Kettler. "They're going to have to do a lot of messaging, that this isn't going to affect most people (in their tax bills)."
(Excerpt) Read more at cdapress.com ...
Reclaim Idaho Knows All About Corruption…and Hypocrisy
by Brent Regan
The sheer hypocrisy of Luke Mayville’s recent op-ed accusing Republicans of corruption (very subtly titled, “Corruption, Corruption, Corruption”) is truly amazing. You see, Mayville – a New York City Ivy League professor who leads the group “Reclaim Idaho,” which was behind the Medicaid expansion initiative on the November 2018 ballot – has relied on hundreds of thousands of dollars from a corrupt California union.
Reclaim Idaho, despite its claims of being a totally grassroots organization, has close financial and ideological ties to a group called “The Fairness Project,” which is itself the brainchild of a highly controversial California union, the Oakland-based Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW for short). The Fairness Project has spent at least $16 million and counting on progressive ballot initiatives in California and many other states, including here in Idaho. In addition to union dues, the Fairness Project has received at least a half-million dollars from a foundation run by left-wing billionaire activist George Soros.
The Fairness Project spent about $547,000 in Idaho on paid signature-gatherers and consulting services to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot, according to campaign finance disclosure reports. It also offered its donor list to Reclaim Idaho and other supporters of Medicaid expansion, to the tune of about $850,000 out-of-state dollars, according to a political consultant who worked on the initiative campaign and was paid by the Fairness Project.
You may be wondering a California union is pouring money into initiatives in states across the country, and why a group like Reclaim Idaho would take a dime from such a shady group. It’s a very good question, especially when you read all the reports about the union’s boss, a man named Dave Regan (no relation to the author), being accused of alleged “ballot box blackmail,” of being a “ballot measure extortionist,” physical assault, intimidating a police officer and, most recently, sexual misconduct in the workplace. Even leftist labor activists in California are strongly critical of Regan, calling him a “bully” and worse.
The answer to why a California union is involved in so many out-of-state campaigns comes from union boss Regan himself. According to union meeting minutes available online, Regan says he wants to use “ballot measures as a tool to exert union strength” and advocated “similar tactics both within and outside of California.” He says he has a plan to “change the political landscape in California and around the country.” In other words, he wants to exploit our initiative process to gain power nationwide, including here in Idaho.
Reclaim Idaho is apparently more than happy to be the puppet of this corrupt California union boss. Last summer, at the height of the campaign season and in the midst of her own unsuccessful bid for the Idaho State House as a Democrat, current Reclaim Idaho Executive Director Rebecca Schroeder went to San Jose for the June 2018 SEIU-UHW Executive Board meeting to make a pitch for Idaho’s Medicaid expansion initiative. Two months later, the union gave the Fairness Project, Reclaim Idaho’s backer, an additional $3 million.
Given all this, it is beyond hypocritical for Luke Mayville or anyone else from Reclaim Idaho to moralize about “corruption.” In fact, given its ties to such a shady union, it seems that Reclaim Idaho owes the people of Idaho more truth and transparency, and less propaganda. Our initiative process wasn’t meant to be manipulated in this way. It’s time we held Reclaim Idaho accountable.
Brilliant idea. Must be transplants from California that thought of it. Morons.
We are facing an initiative in Fl about “assault weapon’ ban. These initiatives are bad ideas IMO.
Let me guess, transplants from New York and Jersey thought of it?
NEVER believe that BS. The public school rat hole will always create a new need for the money. They've promised that same thing so many times in so many states. The property owners get pennies of relief, while the school systems get another new level of worthless secular humanist bureaucrats at the top.
And we get screwed.
So Idaho doesn’t want jobs or rich people. I’m sure that can be arranged.
Probably in part but there is a well healed anti gun crusader in So Florida who frankly should drop dead.
Seems like Idaho is well along the path of Envy and GibsMeDat. The locusts have arrived in Idaho.
but don't you worry....you won't have to face anymore levies, etc....NOT!
almost immediately the local school districts are poor and need to come back for more money....
money for education means more money to our 182 day govt workers....
Wait a second...wasn’t there a referendum against gay marriage? It was voted in and then ruled that a referendum couldn’t be used for such things...I believe California did that.
Name?
The bastard who founded “Reclaim Idaho” is sure doing that.
Brilliant idea. Must be transplants from California that thought of it. Morons.
Morons and Mormons. Idaho is 25% Mormon.
Poor idiots must have read the 0bummer play book on how to chase away taxpayers
Schools have more than enough money...everywhere. No more tax increases.
“Reclaim Idaho...”
From who...real Idahoans?
So they will move across the border and visit their firms via hotel. If only wealthy people were dumb...but it’s like wack-a-mole with these crafty businessmen!
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