Idaho Advisory Ballot, Income and Corporate Tax Changes and Education Funding Question (2022)

Idaho Advisory Ballot
Election date November 8, 2022
Topic Taxes and Education
Status a Approved
Type Advisory question

Idaho Advisory Ballot, the Income and Corporate Tax Changes and Education Funding Question, was on the ballot in Idaho as a advisory question on November 8, 2022. The ballot measure was approved.

An "approve" vote supported the passage of House Bill 1, which: changes the income and corporate tax rates to one flat tax rate of 5.8%; provides a tax rebate equalling the greater of 10% of the taxes paid by a couple or individual in 2020 or $600 per joint filer or $300 for an individual; and allocates $410 million of the state’s sales tax revenue to the public school income fund and in-demand careers fund.

A "disapprove" vote opposed the passage of House Bill 1, which makes changes to the income and corporate tax rates in Idaho and allocates an additional $410 million to education.

Election results

Idaho Advisory Ballot
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		454,746	79.76%
No		115,381	20.24%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Overview

What did approval of the advisory question mean?

See also: Text of measure

The advisory question was a provision of House Bill 1 (HB 1) asking voters about their positions on tax changes and education funding enacted by the state legislature in HB 1. An advisory question is a type of ballot measure in which citizens vote on a non-binding question. Therefore, did not enact or repeal HB 1; it was designed to express approval or disapproval of HB 1.

During the 2022 special legislative session, the Idaho State Legislature passed HB 1. HB 1 was designed to provide a tax rebate equalling the greater of 10% of the taxes paid by a couple or individual in 2020 or $600 per joint filer or $300 for an individual. HB 1 changed the income and corporate tax rate structure to one flat rate tax at 5.8%. It also exempted the first $2,500 from taxation for single filers or $5,000 for joint filers. HB 1 annually allocated $410 million of the state’s sales tax revenue to the public school income fund and in-demand careers fund.

How did House Bill 1 relate to Idaho Proposition 1 which was withdrawn from the 2022 ballot?

See also: House Bill 1 (2022) and Idaho Proposition 1 (2022)

Idaho Proposition 1 was a citizen-initiated measure that would have amended the state statute to increase the state income tax for individuals, trusts, and estates with incomes above $250,000 and couples filing jointly with incomes above $500,000 to $16,097 plus 10.925%. It would have also increased the corporate income tax from 6% to 8%. It qualified for the 2022 ballot on July 22, 2022. After the passage of House Bill 1 (HB 1), Reclaim Idaho, the sponsor of the initiative, announced that it was withdrawing the initiative from the ballot.

Luke Mayville, the founder of Reclaim Idaho, said, "There are two ways a ballot initiative can win. One way is by securing a majority of the vote at the ballot box. Another way is by forcing the Legislature to do something they would never have otherwise done. By placing [Proposition 1] on the ballot, the citizens of Idaho have forced the Legislature to make the largest investment in Idaho public schools in a generation."

How did the advisory question get on the ballot?

See also: Path to the ballot

Idaho law does not provide for or prohibit the Idaho State Legislature from placing an advisory question on the ballot. This advisory vote was placed on the ballot as a provision of House Bill 1 (HB 1), which was introduced during the 2022 special legislative session. HB 1 passed the state House on September 1, 2022, by a vote of 55-15. It passed in the senate on the same day by a vote of 34-1. It was signed by Gov. Brad Little (R) on September 1.

Text of measure

Ballot question

The ballot question was as follows:

“

Do you approve or disapprove of the State of Idaho using the record budget surplus to refund $500 million back to hardworking Idaho taxpayers, cut ongoing income taxes by more than $150 million, and put more money in our classrooms by increasing education and student funding by a record $410 million? Your approval of this effort would combat historic inflation by returning money to taxpayers, creating a simple flat tax, and making the single largest investment in public education in Idaho history. [ ] Approve [ ] Disapprove

”

Full text

The full text of the ballot initiative is below:

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2022

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The state legislature wrote the ballot language for this measure.

The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 21, and the FRE is 15. The word count for the ballot title is 79.

Support

Supporters

Officials

• Gov. Brad Little (R)
• State Sen. Kelly Anthon (R)
• State Sen. Mark Harris (R)
• State Sen. Abby Lee (R)
• State Sen. Jim Rice (R)
• State Sen. Chuck Winder (R)
• House Speaker Scott Bedke (R)
• State Rep. Steven Harris (R)
• State Rep. Jason Monks (R)
• State Rep. Mike Moyle (R)

Arguments

• Gov. Brad Little (R): "I am proud of my legislative partners for confronting the substantial impacts of inflation head on by putting our record budget surplus back in the pockets of Idahoans while responsibly funding education at historic levels to ensure we are meeting our constitutional and moral obligation to Idaho students and families both in the short-term and the long-term. Returning the people’s money is the right thing to do, and the education investments support families, help us keep up with growth, enhance our quality of life, and prepare a workforce to meet the changing needs of employers."
• Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke (R): "Idahoans have a great work ethic…and all that hard work found its way through the tax system and ended up in Boise as way more money than we needed to cover the budget that we would set."

Opposition

Opponents

Officials

• State Sen. Christy Zito (R)
• State Rep. Judy Boyle (R)
• State Rep. Heather Scott (R)

Arguments

• State Rep. Judy Boyle (R): "This bill and this entire process is very disrespectful to our Constitution, to our voters, to our taxpayers and to the incoming class (of legislators). We are telling them we do not trust them to make decisions, and we don’t want to listen to their ideas on what they think about school funding."
• State Rep. Heather Scott (R): "I do not believe that our schools need another dime until we stop teaching critical race theory, until we remove the explicit sexual content from our libraries and the books in our libraries I don’t feel comfortable giving any more money."

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Idaho ballot measures

Ballotpedia has not identified any committees registered in support of or opposition to the advisory question.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Background

House Bill 1 (2022)

During the 2022 special legislative session, the Idaho State Legislature passed House Bill 1 (HB 1). HB 1 was designed to provide a tax rebate equalling the greater of 10% of the taxes paid by a couple or individual in 2020 or $600 per joint filer or $300 for an individual. HB 1 changed the income and corporate tax rate structure to one flat rate tax at 5.8%. It also exempted the first $2,500 from taxation for single filers or $5,000 for joint filers. HB 1 annually allocated $410 million of the state’s sales tax revenue to the public school income fund and in-demand careers fund.

HB 1 also contained a provision to place this advisory question on the ballot asking voters if they approve or disapprove of the tax changes.

HB 1 passed the state House by a margin of 55-15, and it passed the state Senate by a margin of 34-1. It was signed by the governor on September 1, 2022. HB 1 took effect on January 3, 2023.

Idaho Proposition 1 (2022)

See also: Idaho Proposition 1, Income Tax Increases for Education Funding Initiative (2022)

Idaho Proposition 1 was a citizen-initiated measure that would have amended the state statute to increase the state income tax for individuals, trusts, and estates with incomes above $250,000 and couples filing jointly with incomes above $500,000 to $16,097 plus 10.925%. It qualified for the 2022 ballot on July 22, 2022. After the passage of House Bill 1 (HB 1), Reclaim Idaho, the sponsor of the initiative, announced that they were withdrawing the initiative from the ballot. Luke Mayville, the founder of Reclaim Idaho, said, "There are two ways a ballot initiative can win. One way is by securing a majority of the vote at the ballot box. Another way is by forcing the Legislature to do something they would never have otherwise done. By placing [Proposition 1] on the ballot, the citizens of Idaho have forced the Legislature to make the largest investment in Idaho public schools in a generation."

Proposition 1 would have required that the new tax income bracket be changed annually by an adjustment factor equal to the consumer price index for the calendar year 2024 divided by the consumer price index for the calendar year preceding the year to which the adjusted bracket would apply. The new tax brackets and tax rates would have taken effect on January 1, 2023. The tax bracket would have not been adjusted for inflation until 2025. The initiative would have also increased the corporate income tax from 6% to 8%.

Personal income tax rates

Prior to the adoption of HB 1, Idaho had a graduated individual income tax with rates ranging from 1% to 6%. The various brackets for 2022 are listed below:

Idaho income tax brackets for tax year 2022
Tax rate	Single filer bracket	Married filer bracket
1%	> $0	> $0
3%	> $1,588	> $3,176
4.5%	> $4,763	> $9,526
6%	> $7,939	> $15,878

As of 2022, 43 states taxed individual income—41 taxed wages while New Hampshire taxed only dividend and interest revenue, and Washington taxed the capital gains income of high earners. The remaining seven states did not tax personal income. Of the 41 states with an income tax, nine states had a flat rate, and 32 states had graduated rates that varied depending on different income brackets. The number of income tax brackets ranged from three in Kansas to 12 in Hawaii.

The tax rate applied to income within the highest bracket across the 43 states with income taxes ranging from 2.9% applied to income above $445,000 in North Dakota to 13.3% applied to income above $1,000,000 in California.

Corporate income tax rates

As of September 2022, Idaho's corporate income tax rate is 6%. In 2022, it was reduced by House Bill 436 (HB 436) from 6.5%.

As of 2022, 44 states levy a state corporate income tax. The lowest rate was 2.5% in North Carolina and the highest rate was 18.28% in New York. Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Washington imposed gross receipts taxes. South Dakota and Washington were the only states that do not levy a corporate income or gross receipts tax. Under Proposition 1, Idaho would have tied with Massachusetts for the twelfth-highest corporate income tax rate at 8%.

Advisory questions on the ballot in Idaho

Idaho law does not provide for or prohibit the Idaho State Legislature from placing an advisory question on the ballot. Between 1990 and 2022, the state legislature sent two advisory questions to statewide ballots. In 1998, Idaho voters approved an advisory question related to ballot access requirements for state and local officials. The vote margin was 53.16% to 46.84%. In 2006, voters approved a second advisory question related to property taxes. The vote margin was 72.38% to 27.62%.

In these two instances, the advisory questions were a provision of an enacted law that received at least a simple majority vote in both the Idaho State Senate and the Idaho House of Representatives.

Education funding in Idaho

Public schools in Idaho are funded through the state general fund, state dedicated funds, federal dollars, and local funds. In 2022, the Idaho State Board of Education voted to allocate state K-12 funding based on enrollment rather than the default of average daily attendance.

As of August 2022, Idaho ranked 50th for K-12 spending. The state funded on average $6,212 per pupil ($1.93 billion total), and local governments funded on average $2,266 per pupil ($703.7 million total). The state received $891 per pupil ($276.7 million) from the federal government.

Education funding ballot measures in 2022

Five ballot measures related to education funding were certified for the 2022 ballot in five states.

State	Measure	Description	Outcome
California	Proposition 28, Art and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative	Requires funding for K-12 art and music education
Colorado	Reduce Income Tax Deduction Amounts to Fund School Meals Program Measure	Reduces the allowable state income tax deduction amounts; creates and funds the Healthy School Meals for All Program
Idaho	Income and Corporate Tax Changes and Education Funding Advisory Question	Advising the legislature to enact a flat income and corporate tax rate structure, send tax rebates to qualifying taxpayers, and dedicate $400 million annually to education
Massachusetts	Question 1, Tax on Income Above $1 Million for Education and Transportation Amendment	Creates a 4% tax on incomes that exceed $1 million for education and transportation purposes
New Mexico	Constitutional Amendment 1, Land Grant Permanent Fund Distribution for Early Childhood Education Amendment	Funds devoted to early childhood programs from the Land Grant Permanent Fund

Path to the ballot

Idaho law does not provide for or prohibit the Idaho State Legislature from placing an advisory question on the ballot. Since 1995, the state legislature has sent two advisory questions to voters in 1998 and 2006. In these two instances, the advisory questions were a provision of an enacted law that received at least a simple majority vote in both the Idaho State Senate and the Idaho House of Representatives.

This advisory vote was placed on the ballot as a provision of House Bill 1 (HB 1), which was introduced during the 2022 special legislative session. HB 1 passed the state House on September 1, 2022, by a vote of 55-15. It passed in the senate on the same day by a vote of 34-1. It was signed by Gov. Brad Little (R) on September 1.

Vote in the Idaho House of Representatives September 1, 2022
Requirement:
Number of yes votes required: 36  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	55	15	0
Total percent	78.6%	21.4%	0.0%
Democrat	12	0	0
Republican	43	15	0

Vote in the Idaho State Senate September 1, 2022
Requirement:
Number of yes votes required: 18  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	34	1	0
Total percent	97.1%	2.9%	0.0%
Democrat	7	0	0
Republican	27	1	0

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Idaho

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Idaho.

How to vote in Idaho

Poll times

In Idaho, all polls are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time. In some instances, polls may open at 7:00 a.m., at the discretion of the local clerk. Idaho is split between Mountain and Pacific time zones. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

To register to vote in Idaho, an individual must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of the Idaho county in which they are registering for at least 30 days before the election, and at least 18 years old on or before Election Day.

Registration in advance of election day may be completed online, in person at the county clerk's office, or by mail. The deadline to register to vote online is the 11th day before the election. A registration application submitted by mail must be received by the 5:00 p.m. on the 11th day before the election. Voters may also register in-person at an early voting location or on Election Day.

Idaho requires a photo ID and proof of residence to register to vote in person. According to the secretary of state's website, a valid photo ID is one of:

• Idaho Driver’s License
• Idaho Identification Card
• Passport or Federal ID
• Tribal ID Card
• Concealed Weapons License issued by a county sheriff in Idaho

A valid proof of residence is one of:

• Above photo ID with the correct address
• Proof of insurance
• Mortgage, lease, or rental agreement
• Property tax assessment, bill
• Utility bill (no cell bills)
• Bank/credit card statement
• Paystub/paycheck
• Intake document to a care facility
• Enrollment letter from an Idaho high school or university
• Letter from a social service agency

A voter registering to vote by a mail application must provide their Idaho driver's license number or their social security number. If the voter is registering for the first time they must also include a copy of a photo ID and proof of residence. Eligible documents are listed above.

Automatic registration

See also: Automatic voter registration

Idaho does not practice automatic voter registration.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

Idaho has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.

Same-day registration

See also: Online voter registration

Idaho allows same-day voter registration.

Residency requirements

Idaho law requires 30 days of residency in one of the state’s counties before a person may vote.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

Idaho does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual applying to register to vote must attest that they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The page Voter Information Look-Up, run by the Idaho Secretary of State's office, allows residents to check their voter registration status online.

===Voter ID requirements===

See also

2022 measures

• 2022 ballot measures
• Taxes on the ballot
• Education on the ballot

Idaho

• Idaho ballot measures
• Idaho ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Full text