Reclaim Idaho pulls education initiative after lawmakers pass tax bill. Here’s why
Reclaim Idaho has pulled the Quality Education Act from the November ballot, after the Idaho Legislature last week passed a law that undermined the ballot initiative if it passed.
The initiative, spearheaded by the citizen advisory group, would have raised more than $320 million annually in additional income tax for public schools. Also known as Proposition 1, the initiative would have created a new income tax bracket for Idaho taxpayers who earn $250,000 or more in taxable income, and increased corporate income taxes.
The Idaho Legislature last week passed a bill that sets aside $410 million in sales tax revenue for education. The new law also establishes a flat tax, which would have superseded changes made effective by the proposition, according to an Idaho attorney general’s office opinion last month.
Reclaim Idaho said in a news release that the ballot initiative would have been “immediately repealed” by the bill passed during the special session.
“After careful analysis of the situation, and after conversations with local leaders and volunteers across the state, the group determined that leaving Prop 1 on the ballot would cause unnecessary confusion and frustration for thousands of Idaho voters, and so it is best to remove the proposition from the ballot,” the news release said.
Reclaim Idaho credited the group’s work for pushing lawmakers to make the “largest ongoing increase in education funding in decades.”
“There are two ways to win an initiative campaign. The traditional way is to go all the way to the ballot box and win a majority of the vote,” Reclaim Idaho co-founder Luke Mayville said in a statement. “But it’s also possible to win by forcing the Legislature to do something good that they would never have otherwise done.”
Teachers and education groups have praised the increase in education funding — which legislators will have the option to appropriate going forward — as schools struggle to attract and retain teachers and maintain aging facilities.
The November ballot in Idaho will include an “advisory question” that asks voters whether they support the intent of the legislation lawmakers passed during a special session last week.
The results of the advisory question will guide the Legislature on whether it’ll continue “ongoing elements” of the bill. But the question is non-binding and carries no legal authority for the Legislature.
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 4:50 PM.
