May 23, 2007 in Idaho

Voters reject levy for highway district

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The East Side Highway District is not getting additional cash to keep up routine road repairs and maintain equipment after voters rejected a $500,000 property tax increase Tuesday by an unofficial vote tally of 267 to 212 or 55.7 percent in favor.

The levy needed approval by 66.6 percent of the voters.

But in Post Falls, the City Council will grow to six seats after voters overwhelmingly agreed to add two new seats Tuesday.

The highway district of about 7,500 registered voters rejected a tax increase that was similar to a $400,000 proposal last year, at the height of anxiety over escalating property values and in the wake of a failed local school levy.

Since then taxpayers have seen some relief, and the highway commission hoped more residents were willing to permanently increase the amount of property tax collected each year in exchange for better maintained roads.

Yet some residents didn’t like the idea of a permanent tax increase. They would rather have the district come back and ask for additional money every few years, like school districts do with supplemental levies.

Property owners within the district would have paid an additional $20.50 per $100,000 of property value annually if the levy had passed. Currently property owners pay about $33 per $100,000 of property value.

Besides road maintenance and replacing aging trucks and equipment, the money also would have helped offset the potential loss of Craig-Wyden timber payments to counties that include large amounts of national forestlands. Congress is currently debating whether to reauthorize the payments started in 2000. Losing those funds would mean a reduction in the district’s maintenance and operation budget of 71 percent or about $180,000.

The district doesn’t have plans to lay off employees, said John Pankratz, district supervisor.

“We’ll get up and go to work tomorrow morning and do the best we can with what we have,” Pankratz said. “It just may mean services may be cut back along with some other things.”

The district includes the eastern tip of the city of Coeur d’Alene and extends east to Cataldo and south to the Benewah County line.

District commissioners have said the population boom is causing the 141 miles of gravel roads and 97 miles of paved roads to deteriorate faster than the district can make repairs.

The news was disappointing for workers at the district’s offices Tuesday night.

“We had high hopes,” Pankratz said. “It’s not good news for the people out driving our roads. The commissioners are going to have to make some tough decisions – decisions I’m sure they’d rathe.”

To the west, the Post Falls City Council will grow by two members after voters approved the increase 161-77 Tuesday.

The measure, which brings the council to six seats, needed a simple majority to pass. Preliminary results Tuesday night showed 67 percent of voters approving the increase.

The council has considered expanding for several years, but in the past, the cost of adding members has been a deterrent. The council agreed this spring that the city’s ballooning population warranted bringing the issue to the public.

An expanded council would better represent the community and provide more experience to direct the city and make tough decisions, city leaders say.

The additional two members will cost nearly $40,000 a year in salaries and benefits. The two seats will be up for election in November. Only 2.3 percent of registered voters turned out for the Tuesday election.

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