Gov. Butch Otter and top Republicans in the Idaho Legislature are accusing Keith Allred, the Democratic candidate for governor, of taking too much credit for a 2006 plan that reduced property tax bills for homeowners. Allred’s campaign is calling it an odd attack, and some Republicans in the Idaho Senate say Allred did play a part in getting the plan passed.
“He was involved on a very minimal basis,” House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, said in a news release. “There is absolutely no way he can carry the banner on this one and take credit.”
In 2006, state lawmakers approved a plan that increased the homeowner’s exemption on property tax bills from $50,000 to $75,000. Allred led the non-partisan group The Common Interest at that time. The group backed the idea and Allred lobbied in both House and Senate committees on property tax issues. He’s taken credit for the plan in his campaign, which some Republicans reject.
“Keith taking credit for passing the homeowner’s exemption in 2006 is like Al Gore taking credit for inventing the Internet,” said Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot. “It’s just nonsense.” Republicans say the legislation came from an interim committee that examined the property tax issue, not The Common Interest.
Two Republicans serving in the Senate committee that handled the plan in 2006 say Allred helped tack an amendment onto the plan that improved it.
“He as an integral part in coming up with that idea,” said former Republican Sen. Hal Bunderson of Meridian, who has endorsed Allred’s run for governor.
The amendment altered how the exemption would increase over time. The original plan approved by the Idaho House tied it to the national consumer price index, one measure of inflation. The amendment in the Senate changed that to the Idaho housing price index, which more closely tracks changes in home values. That amendment eventually passed the Senate and House.
“To say that he was not instrumental in that is an error,” said Bunderson, who led the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee at the time.
Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, confirmed that Allred worked with Bunderson on that amendment. “To my knowledge, that was the involvement,” Hill told IdahoReporter.com. “He came to the committee and convinced them that it would be a better measure.”
House Republicans at the time, including Lake and Debbie Field, who now manages Otter’s re-election campaign, say Allred wasn’t involved on the House’s work on the property tax change. “The Governor’s opponent is taking credit for passing a bill that he had nothing to do with,” Field said in a news release.
It seems that some Republicans not only can’t play well with others, they’re not able to check their facts before they spout off. Ready… FIRE! Aim.
Instead of quietly ignoring Allred’s claim of fame, they had to speak up and show their ignorance. The raft of errors in their press releases is just icing on the cake.
(Nice of you to ignore that icing, by the way, in spite of it being every bit as newsworthy as the lame complaint they sought to make.)
[...] Allred’s role in the property tax plan, as well as his proposal to lower the gas tax and his assertion that he’s a fifth generation Idahoan have been challenged by Otter and other Republicans. [...]