Public Not Taxing Budget Hearings But The Few Showing Up At Meetings Are Clearly Anti-Tax

They are showing up to vent their frustration in record numbers - two here, three there, a half-dozen elsewhere.

From the city of Hayden to the Post Falls Fire District, at least a few people are darkening the doors of budget hearings to press for lower property taxes and less spending.

Once you couldn’t get enough of an audience at most local government budget meetings to start a game of solitaire. Four citizens were on hand Tuesday for the Lakes Highway District budget hearing - the first time secretary-treasurer Janet Shull remembers anyone other than officials attending.

Three set the new attendance record in Hayden.

Even when no one shows up, it appears local government is getting the anti-tax message. Although Kootenai Medical Center hasn’t received even one telephone call from an angry citizen, it is expected to eliminate its property tax levy, said Joe Morris, the hospital’s CEO.

The hospital is financially sound and property taxes are a minuscule part of the revenue picture, Morris said. While the anti-tax sentiment isn’t the central reason for dropping the levy, “it’s certainly in the background,” he said.

The city of Post Falls says public outrage is the reason it’s proposing only a $35,000 increase in its $5 million annual operating budget. “People feel enough is enough,” City Administrator John Hendrickson said, and they’re calling to ask the city to hold down spending.

“We understand. We are residents here,” Hendrickson said.

The Legislature leaves cities with no choice but to rely upon property taxes. Until lawmakers do a better job of distributing sales taxes or allowing local government more taxing options, property taxes likely will be a sore point, Hendrickson said.

The idea that there’s a surge of public interest in tax issues doesn’t seem entirely accurate, said Coeur d’Alene Finance Director John Austin. “There’s a thousand property tax appeals (in Kootenai County) and six show up?” he said Thursday, referring to attendance at the first of three city budget hearings.

Still, Austin welcomes any scrutiny. “If you don’t hear from the public, you don’t know what they are thinking,” Austin said.

No matter how small the audience, it includes Pat Raffee. The aggressive executive director of Concerned Businesses of North Idaho usually has a few friends in tow, with sheaves of notes and detailed questions about where the money goes.

After attending hearings for 14 different taxing districts in the last few weeks, she believes her strategy may be working. “I think more of the taxing districts are holding the line than not,” Raffee said.

That’s one reason she plans to attend all of the estimated 42 taxing district hearings being held in Kootenai County this summer and fall.

Her organization’s analysis isn’t always welcome. A group of volunteer firefighters three rows deep was waiting for her when she arrived Thursday at the Post Falls Fire District budget meeting.

“They were feeling very angry at what they perceive as manipulating data to make them look bad,” Raffee said. “We’re not picking on just fire departments.” Bills from all of the little taxing districts add up, she said.

In addition, “This is my town, it’s appropriate to ask questions,” Raffee said.

That doesn’t mean Concerned Businesses understands the entire picture, some say.

“Everybody is screaming they don’t want taxes,” said Shull of the Lakes Highway District. “But I told Pat (Raffee), you aren’t sitting down here when people call in and say ‘I want, I want, I want,”’ Shull said.

“People want to pay less and less. And get more.”

, DataTimes