a unified goal to
Lift Local Idaho
We’re a statewide coalition working to give voters in all jurisdictions in Idaho the choice and the ability to directly address unique community needs and to protect the beloved Idaho quality of life
In 2022, all but one of Idaho’s 44 counties saw population gains. Since 2020, the state’s population has grown by 100,000 residents.
US Census Bureau, 2021-2022
Idaho has been the fastest growing state in the country for the past five years.
Idaho is growing because Idaho is great.
But growth is hard.
There’s no shortage of examples of states that didn’t grow well — it looks like skyrocketing property taxes, eroding infrastructure, worsening traffic, overcrowding schools, and an increasingly vulnerable quality of life.
While the state continues to grow, our state already has upwards of $10 billion and growing in unmet and urgent infrastructure demands. Our towns and cities do not have the tools to address growth or to meet these increasing needs.
That’s what Lift Local Idaho aims to change.
The solution already exists. It’s what Idahoans do best:
lifting ourselves up.
Lift Local Idaho, a nonpartisan organization, is a coalition of local option supporters. Already more than 350 supporters strong, the coalition includes concerned citizens, civic organizations, chambers of commerce, business leaders, large employers and small businesses, advocacy groups, and local elected officials. Click here to join the coalition.
Lift Local Idaho isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Local option is already used in 37 states (including all but one of Idaho’s neighbors) and has been of service here in Idaho for decades — 21 communities in Idaho (including McCall, Stanley, Victor, Sandpoint, and others) rely on funds levied through local option to support their specific community needs and values.
Local option is popular because it works.
Residents of all communities in Idaho deserve more control over their quality of life — including the ability to choose what public services they need and how they’re funded.
This opportunity to choose, called local option, is a financing tool and form of local control that gives communities the choice to fund necessary public services themselves — instead of raising property taxes or requesting federal financing. Across party lines, geography, and demographics, a majority of Idahoans support local option.
Lava Hot Springs is one of the 19 jurisdictions in Idaho that utilize local option. With approximately 50,000 visitors a month, the local option taxes shift the associated costs of maintenance and public safety away from the city's 450 residents — and their property taxes. Photo by Rexburg Online.
In 2015, 73% of voters of Sandpoint, Idaho chose to enact a local option tax for city improvements and beautification. Approximately $7 million has been collected through the tax since it went into effect. In 2022, a supermajority of Sandpoint voters approved to increase the tax for streets and pedestrian improvements.
Stanley, Idaho is surrounded by over a thousand miles of untouched wilderness. With an estimated 700,000 visitors a year and a population of 116, local option tax revenue is the most significant revenue source for the city of Stanley. Local option funds the city park, cemetery, streets, snow grooming, law enforcement, and assistance for city-based organizations such as fire volunteers, emergency personnel, and the chamber of commerce.
