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Why Idaho's Schools Chief Wants Lawmakers To Collect Internet Sales Tax

Idaho Capitol Dome
Emilie Ritter Saunders
/
Boise State Public Radio

Idaho's Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna told lawmakers Wednesday they must consider collecting the sales tax on Internet purchases in order to fund improvements to the state's education system.

At the beginning of every legislative session, Luna updates lawmakers on how the state’s education system is faring and what he thinks they should do on education issues. This time he focused on implementing the recommendations of the governor's Education Improvement Task Force.

Luna thinks a key piece of long-term implementation of those recommendations is creating a new revenue stream.

“We must have a serious discussion about revenue and specifically our tax code,” Luna said. “As we move to create a 21st century education system, we must have a 21st century tax code.”

To have a 21st century tax code, Luna says Idaho needs to get serious about collecting sales tax on Internet purchases. That’s something else Luna has said to lawmakers before and they’veheard it from many others as well. But the Legislature has refused to take steps to do it half a dozen times.

Luna says commerce is clearly migrating to the Internetand not taking that into account is short sighted. His spokesperson says collecting these taxes is something the Legislature can address immediately and could collect up to $65 million in additional revenue.

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