We're still stunned that at Bell's urging, the trustees put their seal of approval on the tax increase at the very first reading of the college's budget. Ron Vieselmeyer and Mic Armon, to their credit, opposed the tax hike. However, trustees did not offer so much as a respectful pause for public comment between reading the budget for the first time and adopting it with the full tax increase included. But that is what we have come to expect of the current regime. We live in an era when college presidents are rented, stay long enough to collect retirement benefits and then move on to the next campus that is eager to give them too much authority and too little accountability. We can't comprehend why NIC's trustees would reward their president with more money and a contract extension at a time like this. Unfortunately for Kootenai County taxpayers, it is what it is/Mike Patrick, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.

Question: Should North Idaho College trustees have raised President Priscilla Bell's pay at a time when education budgets are being cut throughout the state?