SECTION 1. FISCAL YEAR. The fiscal year shall commence on the second Monday of January in each year, unless otherwise provided by law.
SECTION 2. REVENUE TO BE PROVIDED BY TAXATION. The legislature shall provide such revenue as may be needful, by levying a tax by valuation, so that every person or corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her, or its property, except as in this article hereinafter otherwise provided. The legislature may also impose a license tax, both upon natural persons and upon corporations, other than municipal, doing business in this state; also a per capita tax: provided, the legislature may exempt a limited amount of improvements upon land from taxation.
SECTION 3. PROPERTY TO BE DEFINED AND CLASSIFIED. The word “property” as herein used shall be defined and classified by law.
SECTION 4. PUBLIC PROPERTY EXEMPT FROM TAXATION. The property of the United States, except when taxation thereof is authorized by the United States, the state, counties, towns, cities, villages, school districts, and other municipal corporations and public libraries shall be exempt from taxation; provided, however, that unimproved real property owned or held by the department of fish and game may be subject to a fee in lieu of taxes if the fees are authorized by statute but not to exceed the property tax for the property at the time of acquisition by the department of fish and game, unless the tax for that class of property shall have been increased.
SECTION 5. TAXES TO BE UNIFORM – EXEMPTIONS. All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects within the territorial limits, of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws, which shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, real and personal: provided, that the legislature may allow such exemptions from taxation from time to time as shall seem necessary and just, and all existing exemptions provided by the laws of the territory, shall continue until changed by the legislature of the state: provided further, that duplicate taxation of property for the same purpose during the same year, is hereby prohibited.
SECTION 6. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS TO IMPOSE THEIR OWN TAXES. The legislature shall not impose taxes for the purpose of any county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, but may by law invest in the corporate authorities thereof, respectively, the power to assess and collect taxes for all purposes of such corporation.
SECTION 7. STATE TAXES TO BE PAID IN FULL. All taxes levied for state purposes shall be paid into the state treasury, and no county, city, town, or other municipal corporation, the inhabitants thereof, nor the property therein, shall be released or discharged from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state purposes.
SECTION 8. CORPORATE PROPERTY MUST BE TAXED. The power to tax corporations or corporate property, both real and personal, shall never be relinquished or suspended, and all corporations in this state or doing business therein, shall be subject to taxation for state, county, school, municipal, and other purposes, on real and personal property owned or used by them, and not by this constitution exempted from taxation within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.
SECTION 9. MAXIMUM RATE OF TAXATION. The rate of taxation of real and personal property for state purposes shall never exceed ten (10) mills on each dollar of assessed valuation, unless a proposition to increase such rate, specifying the rate proposed and the time during which the same shall be levied, shall have been submitted to the people at a general election, and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election.
SECTION 10. MAKING PROFIT FROM PUBLIC MONEY PROHIBITED. The making of profit, directly or indirectly, out of state, county, city, town, township or school district money, or using the same for any purpose not authorized by law, by any public officer, shall be deemed a felony, and shall be punished as provided by law.
SECTION 11. EXPENDITURE NOT TO EXCEED APPROPRIATION. No appropriation shall be made, nor any expenditure authorized by the legislature, whereby the expenditure of the state during any fiscal year shall exceed the total tax then provided for by law, and applicable to such appropriation or expenditure, unless the legislature making such appropriation shall provide for levying a sufficient tax, not exceeding the rates allowed in section nine of this article, to pay such appropriation or expenditure within such fiscal year. This provision shall not apply to appropriations or expenditures to suppress insurrection, defend the state, or assist in defending the United States in time of war.
SECTION 12. STATE TAX COMMISSION, MEMBERS, TERMS, APPOINTMENT, VACANCIES, DUTIES, POWERS – COUNTY BOARDS OF EQUALIZATION, DUTIES. There shall be a state tax commission consisting of four (4) members, not more than two (2) of whom shall belong to the same political party. The members of said commission shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of the senate; the first commission to consist of one (1) commissioner appointed for a term of two (2) years, one commissioner appointed for a term of four (4) years and two (2) commissioners appointed for a term of six (6) years, and appointments thereafter to be for a term of six (6) years; each commissioner to serve until his successor is appointed and qualified. If during the recess of the senate a vacancy occurs in said commission, it shall be the duty of the governor to fill such vacancy by appointment, and the appointee shall hold office for the unexpired term of his predecessor. The duties heretofore imposed upon the state board of equalization by the Constitution and laws of this state shall be performed by the state tax commission and said commission shall have such other powers and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law, including the supervision and coordination of the work of the several county boards of equalization. The board of county commissioners for the several counties of the state, shall constitute boards of equalization for their respective counties, whose duty it shall be to equalize the valuation of the taxable property in the county, under such rules and regulations of the state tax commission as shall be prescribed by law.
SECTION 13. MONEY – HOW DRAWN FROM TREASURY. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in pursuance of appropriations made by law.
SECTION 14. MONEY – HOW DRAWN FROM COUNTY TREASURIES. No money shall be drawn from the county treasuries except upon the warrant of a duly authorized officer, in such manner and form as shall be prescribed by the legislature.
SECTION 15. LEGISLATURE TO PROVIDE SYSTEM OF COUNTY FINANCE. The legislature shall provide by law, such a system of county finance, as shall cause the business of the several counties to be conducted on a cash basis. It shall also provide that whenever any county shall have any warrants outstanding and unpaid, for the payment of which there are no funds in the county treasury, the county commissioners, in addition to other taxes provided by law, shall levy a special tax, not to exceed ten (10) mills on the dollar, of taxable property, as shown by the last preceding assessment, for the creation of a special fund for the redemption of said warrants; and after the levy of such special tax, all warrants issued before such levy, shall be paid exclusively out of said fund. All moneys in the county treasury at the end of each fiscal year, not needed for current expenses, shall be transferred to said redemption fund.
SECTION 16. LEGISLATURE TO PASS NECESSARY LAWS. The legislature shall pass all laws necessary to carry out the provisions of this article.
SECTION 17. GASOLINE TAXES AND MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATION FEES TO BE EXPENDED ON HIGHWAYS. On and after July 1, 1941 the proceeds from the imposition of any tax on gasoline and like motor vehicle fuels sold or used to propel motor vehicles upon the highways of this state and from any tax or fee for the registration of motor vehicles, in excess of the necessary costs of collection and administration and any refund or credits authorized by law, shall be used exclusively for the construction, repair, maintenance and traffic supervision of the public highways of this state and the payment of the interest and principal of obligations incurred for said purposes; and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purposes whatsoever.
SECTION 18. IDAHO MILLENNIUM PERMANENT ENDOWMENT FUND – IDAHO MILLENNIUM INCOME FUND – IDAHO MILLENNIUM FUND. There is hereby created in the state treasury an Idaho Millennium Permanent Endowment Fund. The fund shall consist of eighty percent of the moneys received each year by the state of Idaho on and after January 1, 2007, pursuant to the master settlement agreement entered into between tobacco product manufacturers and the state of Idaho, and any other moneys that may be appropriated or otherwise directed to the fund by the legislature, including other moneys or assets that the fund receives by bequest or private donation. The moneys received annually for deposit to the fund, including earnings, shall forever remain inviolate and intact. No portion of the permanent endowment fund shall ever be transferred to any other fund, or used, or appropriated, except as follows: each year, the state treasurer shall distribute five percent of the permanent endowment fund’s average monthly fair market value for the first twelve months of the preceding twenty-four months, to the Idaho Millennium Income Fund, and provided, that such distribution shall not exceed the permanent endowment fund’s fair market value on the first business day of July.
The Idaho Millennium Income Fund, which is hereby created in the state treasury, is subject to appropriation as provided by law, and shall consist of the distribution from the Idaho Millennium Permanent Endowment Fund and other moneys that may be appropriated or otherwise directed to the fund as provided by law.
The remaining twenty percent of the moneys received by the state of Idaho on and after January 1, 2007, pursuant to the master settlement agreement entered into between tobacco product manufacturers and the state of Idaho and the earnings thereon, shall be deposited to the Idaho Millennium Fund. The fund may consist of any other moneys that may be appropriated or otherwise directed to the fund by the legislature, including other moneys or assets that the fund receives by bequest or private donation. Moneys in the fund shall be allowed to accumulate, but shall not exceed a maximum limit as determined by law. Any amounts so accumulating in the Idaho Millennium Fund which exceed the maximum limit, shall be transferred, no less than once a year, to the Idaho Millennium Permanent Endowment Fund, and such moneys and earnings in the permanent endowment fund shall also remain inviolate and intact.