Idaho Capital Sun

New report finds tax cuts benefit highest-income Idaho households most

In this campaign season, ask your legislators and candidates for office:

• Why did 73% of the tax cuts go to the top 20% of earners? Was that the intended outcome, and if not, what will you do differently?

• A median-income family got $453 back while a top-1% household got $20,000+. Do you think that's a fair trade-off?

• You cut budgets for schools, universities, and health services while sitting on $1.3 billion in rainy-day funds. Why draw down services instead of reserves?

• College tuition went up after university funding was cut. Did you anticipate that, and do you consider that an acceptable outcome?

• Low-income Idahoans are now paying more in taxes overall. How do you explain that?

• The total value of these tax cuts exceeds everything Idaho spends on K-12, higher ed, and health and human services combined. Does that reflect your values?

• The child tax credit was allowed to expire. Why was that a lower priority than income tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy?