The Taxman Cometh-As a Political Fundraiser

Wayne Hoffman had a terrific piece yesterday on the check off box for political parties on the state tax form.

As Hoffman points out, the idea is straight out of the 1970s when a similar federal check off box was to solve the problem of money in politics. Of course, it hasn’t. In Idaho, it was supposed to make the political parties less dependnet on private contributions, it hasn’t.

At the national level, the Presidential matching funds are used by candidates who can’t gain mainstream support because of the number of strings that come attached to them. Neither Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton used the matching funds, nor of course did Mitt Romney, becuase they didn’t want the spending limits. Mike Huckabee didnt’ use the matching funds because he didn’t want to be in a straight jacket should he win the nomination. John McCain used them quite shrewdly. He used taxpayer backed matching funds to serve as a collateral for a loan to keep his campaign afloat and then when he received the nomination, McCain withdrew his agreement to abide by spending limits during the Primary. I’m sure that’s just what the authors of the law had in  mind.

While I did the Republican box, I think the program overall is a waste of money and should be ended for all parties.  However, the savings seem small in the scheme of a big budget crisis, but Hoffman points out the more than $70,000 spent on Idaho’s political parties could provide two State Patrolmen to protect the people of Idaho.

Perhaps, if Checkoff boxes are such a great idea, though, might I suggest that would have a more practical effect. Give me a Check Off box to send a portion of my State Tax dollars to an organization that does a better job of taking care of the poor or one of many other roles government usurps for itself. Somehow, I don’t think that this suggestion will be near as popular around the Capitol.