‘Good Things Can Come’ From Lids

It’s often the best place to turn.

Got a pot-holed street? A stodgy, dust-caked business district? Leaky septic tanks?

That’s when North Idaho cities typically form local improvement districts. Usually, they come at the request of property owners.

Cities can’t always afford to do needed public work, but they can always borrow money at better rates than community groups, said John Austin, Coeur d’Alene city treasurer.

That’s why LIDs can provide money for upgrades that otherwise wouldn’t be done.

“Is it always easy or efficient? No,” said attorney Scott Reed. “But good things can come of it.”

A LID is how businesses financed Sherman Avenue’s cosmetic surgery. Another is helping pay for widening narrow Government Way.

It’s how the mining town of Wallace paid the $2.1 million price for its sparkling new business district.

It’s how residents in Sunset Terrace and other subdivisions will pay for the switch from aquiferthreatening septic tanks to safer sewer service.

Most states have some form of local improvement district, and laws vary little state to state, said Mike Moore, a Boise attorney widely regarded as an authority on government financing issues.

“They’ve been upheld in every court in the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court,” Moore said. “It’s a democratic process.”