Idaho should fund schools, not tax cuts

Honorable Sens. Shawn Keough and Joyce Broadsword and Reps. George Eskridge and Eric Anderson

As a group you do a great job of representing North Idaho. I also know that you are a fiscally responsible and sensible group of politicians. I would like to personally thank the senators for voting to restore the cuts in salary apportionment for teachers. I believe this is the best use of the projected surplus dollars and avoids schoolteachers possible receiving merit pay but less salary dollars.

However I would also like to express my dismay and concern regarding House passage of a bill to give back 36 million in cuts to a small number of wealthy Idahoans. Having just barely emerged from three of the most difficult financial years imaginable it seems the height of folly to create yet another special class that does not have to pay at the same rate as everyone else. I realize that as a public school employee I might be perceived as biased but it is not just about schools. Our state can barely afford to keep the roads plowed after a snowstorm and yet we are giving money back to “high earning individuals and businesses” that use those roads or educate their children in our schools. At the very least, this bill seems premature. I urge you to reconsider and keep us on a more fiscally responsible path.

ALAN MILLAR

Sandpoint

Principal

Sandpoint Charter School