A new analysis by Idaho Education News shows the 2006 tax shift engineered in a one-day special session by then-Gov. Jim Risch – cutting property taxes that previously funded schools, while raising the sales tax from 5 to 6 percent – has actually resulted in a tax increase 10 years later. Idahoans paid out $324.8 million in voter-approved supplemental property tax levies and increased sales taxes in 2015-16, while reaping property tax relief worth $303.1 million. The net effect: A tax increase of $21.7 million.

EdNews reporter Kevin Richert also found that as a whole, Idaho schools are collecting more tax dollars than they would have received under the pre-2006 tax structure, but there are winners and losers. The losers: 18 of Idaho’s 115 school districts are collecting fewer state and local dollars than they did a decade ago, when the Risch tax shift became law. The winners: 26 school districts are actually collecting more local property taxes now than a decade ago, thanks to voter-approved levies. The EdNews report is online here; it’s part of a series running this week.