District 1 lawmakers visit WBCSD

PRIEST RIVER — Sen. Jim Woodward and Rep. Cornel Rasor answered questions and shared goals for the upcoming legislative session at the Dec. 18 West Bonner County School District board meeting.

Both said they wanted to ensure North Idaho schools are adequately funded without placing a heavy tax burden on residents. 

Woodward, who will serve on the Senate Education Committee next year, said he wanted to shift some education funding from property tax revenue to the general fund, which is supported by income and sales taxes. 

“It's more evenly spread across every taxpayer,” he said. 

He also voiced support for raising the grocery tax credit, which offsets sales tax on food purchases for Idaho residents. 

“Just like the homeowner's exemption, we haven’t adjusted it to meet today's numbers. It's time to do that again,” Woodward said. 

Rasor expressed tentative support for using general fund dollars for education and emphasized his opposition to raising taxes. 

“I want to look for something that won't create a new tax but will adequately fund the schools to meet the constitutional obligation,” he said. “We don't want to get into a situation where we overburden the general fund.” 

Rasor added that he wants to be sure wealthy out-of-staters visiting Idaho are taxed appropriately but not to the point legislators would be “killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” 

“It's a study in balance,” he said. 

In the meeting, Woodward described the conversation around public funds being used for private education as “one of the bigger issues in the Legislature this year.” 

He noted that Idaho’s constitution mandates a public education system: “We can go beyond that if we want to, but we have to meet that minimum.”