Balukoff heads to the fair to stump for votes

COEUR d'ALENE - The fair signals different things for different people, and for politicians it's no different: It's campaign season.

A.J. Balukoff was on a campaign swing through North Idaho Friday and - like his opponent, incumbent Gov. Butch Otter, did earlier this week - he was headed to the fair.

Balukoff, an accountant and longtime Boise-based businessman, is running primarily on a platform to increase school funding and create jobs.

Education spending is an issue he is well aware of as the president of the Boise school board.

"The reason I got into this race in the first place is centered around education," he said. "I've been on the Boise school board for 17 years and watched the defunding of our schools and also the erosion of local control."

He said the Legislature doesn't need to be dictating how school administrators and teachers do their jobs. He also wants to find a stable and predictable funding source for the schools.

"That leads right into my second big issue, which is the economy and jobs," he said. "We need to have the kind of jobs that pay living wages."

Balukoff said if he is elected, he would look at ways to reverse the tax shift that changed the funding structure for Idaho schools back in 2006.

He said the switch from the stable property tax funding for schools to a less reliable sales tax funding formula for schools has forced local school districts to resort to local levies for supplemental funding, which often cannot pass in certain communities.

"We have 94 districts that have supplemental levies now," he said. "Then you have a bunch of districts - about 40 - that don't pass supplemental levies because they can't."

That results in disparities among school districts, but Balukoff said the state is constitutionally mandated to provide a uniform and thorough public education system.

"So we need to talk about how the citizens of this state want to pay for education," he said. "A lot of them seem to be willing to use property tax."

He believes a property tax would stabilize funding. The problem with supplemental levies is that they only last two years, and Balukoff said the districts have to go back to the voters to get the funding restored.

If the voters don't agree, he added, it can have devastating affects on the district.

Balukoff said the Coeur d'Alene School District covers 23 percent of its budget with supplemental levy dollars.

"That would be devastating to the school district to take a 23 percent cut," he said.

Balukoff said he would like to research a stable property taxes funding system and possibly broadening the base of the sales tax, which if done right, could reduce the rate.

"If there is a way to broaden the base a little bit and lower that rate, that would benefit most people, while perhaps collecting more tax," he said.