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Phil and his daughter, Sarah

My name is Phil Hart and I’m running for re-election to the Idaho Legislature to once again represent your voice in Boise. Since I began pursuing this office, I’ve knocked on over two thousand doors in northern Kootenai County. But, there are many of you that I have yet to meet. That is why I’m taking this opportunity to write to you about why I’m seeking your support.

I believe in smaller government, lower taxes, and less spending. The current rule of thumb is, for every dollar government collects in taxes, it delivers about thirty cents in services. Every dollar that is extracted from you, the taxpayer, represents money that could be better spent in North Idaho to help your family and boost our local economy.

There are many issues that are important to me: educational choice and flexibility; fundamental tax reform that can shift the burden off of take-home pay and help our families find financial independence; a balanced state budget; and, like most of my constituents that I’ve talked to, I’m very concerned with the fact that our property taxes are out of control because of soaring property values. I’m also a strong advocate for business, agriculture, free enterprise, and protection of our clean air and safe living.

These important items will be my highest priorities as we return to Boise next year, if you see fit to re-elect me.

I believe that my record is consistent with how I told you I would vote when I first ran. As a committed social and fiscal conservative who believes in limiting government involvement in our lives, I’m happy with what I’ve already been able to accomplish.

Today’s Idaho Legislature has only a half dozen legislators with financial expertise and only one other civil engineer besides me. As a professional civil engineer who also holds a Master’s Degree in Finance, I am able to offer experience in both of these areas to the Legislature.

Probably what I’m proudest of so far is my work on the House Transportation Committee. In my first session, special interests tried to ram through a GARVEE road bill that was loaded with pork. Several projects in the bill definitely weren’t needed. I was able to work with like-minded colleagues on the committee to stop that. Now all of the GARVEE projects have to go through the same approval process as any other road project. In other words, they must now be selected on their merits. Because of the changes we made, the first year of GARVEE appropriated funds sends 40% of those monies to North Idaho.

In a recent public forum, my opponent falsely claimed that I “killed” the GARVEE bill. But that just isn’t true. We did the right thing for the entire state and saved well over a half billion dollars when we held the GARVEE bill in committee and amended it. Now, because we had the courage to resist pressure from special interests, those substantial resources are going to be spent where they are really needed, particularly here in North Idaho.

Because I’m an engineer, I’ve also found myself heavily involved in the pending Statehouse renovation and addition. As I studied the various proposals for the project, I became concerned that not enough thought was going into the planning process in terms of the Legislature’s likely needs for the next fifty years.

So I formed an ad hoc committee to address these issues, and have devoted my own time and resources to digging into the details of our Capitol Building. What we do with the Statehouse is permanent, and is something our kids and grandkids are going to be living with for a very long time.

I also authored House Bill 732, which limits how much government can take when a home or real property is seized and auctioned to pay back property taxes. Today, the county keeps 100% of the proceeds, regardless of how much is actually owed. There is no reason that government should be allowed to take the taxpayer’s entire equity. All that should be owed are the taxes and related expenses. People who hit a financial rough spot in their lives need to be protected from government making the situation even worse by taking what government isn’t entitled to.

I was gratified to be able to support the Idaho marriage amendment. My commitment to pro-family, pro-life issues is one of the things that got me involved in running for office in the first place. I also supported the slate of gun rights bills that we saw this past session. I was honored that Idahoans for Tax Reform, a public-policy advocacy group that I admire, ranked me as “the 6th most influential conservative in Idaho” for 2006.

Magna Carta Monument

Over the entire course of human history, any system by which a People have the chance to choose their leaders through a democratic process is a rarity. But, this great blessing didn’t come easily. It was a process that was born out of conflict — conflict between the People and their governments.

The first great legal document in the history of the English-speaking world was the Magna Carta, “signed on the Meadow of Runnymede between Windsor and Staines,” just outside London, in the year 1215.

When I wrote my book Constitutional Income a number of years ago, I wanted to be thorough in my understanding of the timeless battle for the rights of the People, so I visited that meadow. I saw the very spot where this great founding document of liberty was signed almost 800 years ago as England prepared for civil war. King John had been abusing the laws that allowed him to tax the English people, and the barons had had enough. And so, in an act of bravery that is still paying dividends for the people of the world today, they forced the reluctant king, by threat of war, to affix his signature to that document.

Phil discussing his book on
Boise TV – KBCI Channel 2

A very wise man once said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” In my civic life, I have taken that admonition seriously. Almost every great legal document that we cherish today was born out of war and conflict. These include the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

In that spirit and with that motivation, I have worked to advance the tenets of those inspired documents in my battle over the issue of taxation.

In my desire to resolve the constitutional underpinnings of the income tax, I engaged in several thousand hours of historical study, so that I could answer the question Supreme Court Justice John H. Clarke asked in 1921 concerning “the meaning of the term [income tax] which must have been in the minds of the people when they ratified the Sixteenth Amendment.” 255 U.S. 509, 519 (1921)

This journey took me on many visits to the Library of Congress and the United States Supreme Court Law Library. I also visited numerous law libraries and public libraries throughout the country. All of my efforts were focused on answering that one question, “What does the word ‘income’ mean as it is used in the Constitution?”

No one had ever tried to answer that particular question before, it seemed. My friend, the distinguished Dr. Herb Titus, a Harvard Law School graduate and law school dean, encouraged me to do the work and later, after my book was written, had me on his radio show That’s the Law.

Phil Hart, Tax Policy Speech, 7-19-04
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Although all the research and analysis was difficult, my year of formal legal training helped me immensely. One of my most striking discoveries was that in the first decade of the twentieth century, as the passage of a constitutional amendment to allow an income tax was being debated, ninety percent of the American people supported it. How could this be? Back then, it was the People’s intent that the income tax be much more narrowly defined than it is today.

By their very nature, governments everywhere are like weeds. They gradually take over and choke out everything else in the garden, unless someone cuts them back. In my advocacy for fundamental tax reform, I have worked hard to stop the ninety-year creep of the scope and complexity of the income tax, at great personal cost and at considerable risk to my own reputation and livelihood.

Your decision two years ago to elect me to represent you in the Idaho Legislature has given me the opportunity to carry on this fight in a new and very practical way, for which I am grateful. I want my daughter and my grandkids to freely enjoy the fruits of their labors in an even greater measure than do today. When the tax code is radically simplified, both at the state and national levels, all of us will benefit immeasurably.

Coeur d’Alene Press, Dec. 11, 1997:
Phil Hart testifies during a congressional
hearing on the IRS at City Hall

I foresee a day when we have a tax system in which businesses won’t be forced to seek tax havens overseas, our families will only need one bread winner, and churches will not be muzzled by the need to keep their “tax exempt” status.

Change will come, but it will take more work and more time.

Serving in the Idaho House of Representatives is not always easy, and some of the sacrifices, particularly of time, are fairly substantial. But, I do feel a calling to this important work, and think I’ve found a balance between working for you in Boise and keeping my engineering firm in Hayden on an even keel. I have the energy and the stamina to work on your behalf for two more years.

I noticed when I visited the Meadow at Runnymede that the only monument there was built and paid for by Americans. After some thought, I decided that this was not surprising. We have always been the ones who took Edmund Burke’s powerful words to heart, and put them into action: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” If we don’t have good men willing to step up to the plate and “do something” the cause of our founding fathers is lost.

I believe in fighting for the principles that built this country. That’s why I’m seeking your support once again in the GOP primary on May 23rd.

Please feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Representative Phil Hart
Idaho House District 3