Officials Want Joint Capitol Lobbyist County, Two Cities Consider Sharing Cost Of Pushing Tax, Fee Legislation

Feeling financially hamstrung by inflexible state laws, local officials are looking for professional help in getting those laws changed.

Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County officials are considering hiring a lobbyist to persuade legislators to ease the burden on local taxpayers.

The estimated cost, to be split among the cities and county, is $10,500.

“We need a little help,” said John Hendrickson, Post Falls city administrator. “You can tell they (the lawmakers) don’t have to manage this system.”

Though North Idaho legislators have championed efforts to help rapidly growing communities fund their needs, they have failed in many of their attempts.

The top legislative priorities of local officials are:

Local option tax, a sales tax approved by voters in an individual taxing district to be used for a particular purpose;

Sales tax revenue redistribution. Local cities say they are not getting their fair share of the state sales tax because the formula used to distribute it is outdated;

Liquor tax revenue redistribution. The argument for this is similar to the sales tax issue;

Impact fees, which would allow local governments to charge developers for costs related to growth, such as street and school construction.

The cities of Coeur d’Alene and Hayden were forced to return impact fees they had collected from developers after a district judge said they needed the state’s permission to charge the fees.

Last spring, the Idaho Senate killed bills allowing cities to charge such fees.

“We need to find more ways of decreasing the reliance on property taxes,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Al Hassell. “One way to do that is to change legislation.

“Our own legislators work with us pretty well, but quite often it takes someone there on a regular basis to talk to some of the other legislators as well.”

Another bill that failed last spring was one drafted by Kootenai County Clerk Tom Taggart to redistribute the sales tax.

Post Falls only gets $65,000 of state sales tax revenue now. Hendrickson estimates that if one cent out of the five cents collected for every dollar spent in Post Falls stayed in Post Falls, the city would bring in $2 million.

“The distribution formula has no bearing to reality,” he said.

Though Taggart testified on behalf of his bill, he couldn’t spend the time in Boise to walk it through the whole legislative process.

“We’re 400 miles away,” Taggart said. “We don’t have the time and resources to go down and do the legwork. In the real world, the way to get things done is to hire a professional to do it.”

Rep. Hilde Kellogg, R-Post Falls, said she was unsure whether it was worthwhile to spend tax dollars on a lobbyist, especially since the cities and counties already have lobbyists through their professional associations.

“I’m not sure why they think this is more beneficial,” she said. “I know their frustrations. I live up here, too. However, I know there will be a lot of criticism.”

, DataTimes