All three Reagan Republican candidates attempting to take over the North Idaho College Board of Trustees were parroting the party line that NIC taxes have soared over the past five years. They never mentioned, of course, that enrollment has soared during that time and that the current board of trustees had the foresight to purchase adjacent land for further expansion. Two flyers hit my mailbox this weekend. One touting Paul Matthews and Todd Banducci, the other, their sidekick in the takeover attempt, Ron Nilson. In the Matthews-Banducci flyer, the challengers made the claim that NIC taxes have gone up a whopping 73 percent. And this: "If divided by the population of Kootenai County, it means almost $600 in new property taxes for every family of four." Which leads me to believe that someone's telling a whopper here. My NIC taxes have gone up a grand total of $15 in five years.

Thoughts?