Commissioners told to keep it simple

Don’t confuse the voters.

That was the overwhelming message Kootenai County Commission Chairman Dick Panabaker heard Friday from a group of locals who want the county to narrow the focus of the November advisory vote.

The county plans to ask voters whether they want the Idaho Legislature to expand the local-option sales tax that is currently paying off the county jail expansion. The county wants the ability to continue the half-cent sales tax to pay for major projects that aren’t possible with the current budget. Half of the money also would go toward property tax relief.

Initially the county also planned to ask voters Nov. 2 whether they would rather spend the half-cent sales tax, if the Legislature changes the law, to pay for buying up to 10,000 acres of prairie for open space or building a $32 million civic center in the middle of the county.

The group of about 25 people – including elected officials, business owners and Rathdrum Prairie farmers – said that including the two options, which are somewhat contradictory, could create factions. That, they said, could muddy the true answers the county is trying to get – whether locals want to keep the local-option tax.

“Each one of those specific items brings with it baggage,” said Jerry Mason, who works as city attorney for Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum. “If we get this with enough complicating factors then the answer to the first question will go down.”

The group agreed, and so did Panabaker and Commissioner Gus Johnson.

Commissioner Rick Currie worried that if the civic center option is stripped from the advisory ballot, the county might lose support from backers touting the plan for the recreational and cultural center, which would have a pool, ice rink and conference space.

Panabaker, who is proposing the open space plan, said that’s unlikely because the civic center supporters need the Legislature to expand the local-option sales tax or their plan is dead.

“Nobody would get what they want if they campaign against it,” Panabaker said.

If the Legislature agrees to expand the half-cent sales tax, then the county would come back to local voters and ask them how they want to spend the money.

Panabaker said his plan to buy prairie land would protect the aquifer, decrease field burning, secure large amounts of open space and ensure the region’s ability to meet its growing wastewater treatment needs.

He said the next step is to sit down with the prairie farmers to negotiate a fair market price for the land and have the farmers agree to keep growing bluegrass and other crops until the county could take over the management.

Prairie land owners told Panabaker Friday that he’s working in the right direction.

“I would like to see every bit of my land in open space,” said land owner Vonnie Satchwell. “I love it. But we still have to eat and still pay our bills.”

Local car dealer John Robideaux is pushing the civic center option but refuses to talk openly about the plan until the county commission formalizes the advisory vote language next week.

Robideaux has had the civic center idea for years, but never any way to fund the plan.

Convincing the tax-averse Legislature to extend the local-option law is the biggest hurdle for either plan, and that’s why many people Friday told commissioners to concentrate first on getting voter support for the law’s expansion. If the advisory vote shows people want to use the half-cent sales tax for projects other than jails, Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, said that will help him sell the proposal at the 2005 session.

“Ask the initial question whether taxpayers are willing to shoulder the continuation of the half-cent sales tax for capital projects,” Goedde said. “That’s the answer I need.”