Ed funding initiative qualifies for Idaho ballot

BOISE — Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney announced Friday that the Quality Education Act initiative has officially qualified for the November ballot.

The initiative proposes to raise Idaho’s corporate income tax rate from 6% to 8%. It also creates a new, 10.925% income tax bracket for individuals with more than $250,000 in taxable income, or $500,000 for joint filers.

The measure would generate an estimated $323 million per year for K-12 education. That would be about a 14% increase over current state funding.

“This moment is the culmination of an entire year of hard work by over 1,000 volunteers,” Luke Mayville, co-founder and executive director of Reclaim Idaho, told the Idaho Statesman.

Reclaim Idaho is the grassroots organization that sponsored the initiative.

To qualify for the ballot, supporters had to gather at least 64,945 valid signatures from registered voters, which was 6% of the total number of registered voters in the state as of the 2020 general election. They also had to collect signatures from 6% of registered voters in at least 18 different legislative districts.

Reclaim Idaho actually turned in more than 100,000 signatures. Denney said the measure qualified in at least 19 districts.

A simple majority vote will be needed to approve the initiative.

Before the November election, Mayville said, his group will be working to get out the vote in all 44 counties with a door-knocking campaign.

Mayville said he is “confident” the majority of Idahoans will vote “yes” once his organization shows them that the initiative will improve public schools through a “reasonable tax proposal.”

“The people of Idaho have an incredible opportunity to make big investments in K-12 education so that we keep more of our teachers and support staff in the classroom, strengthen our programs and pull our education system out of the shameful status of 50th out of 50 states,” he said.

A summary of the proposal can be found on the web at sos.idaho.gov/elections/initiatives/2022/Quality_Education_Act.pdf.