If You Can’T Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

Mike Stine first took on the establishment in Kootenai County when he challenged a prominent developer’s plan to put a storage facility near Stine’s rural Rathdrum-area home.

He’s suing the county over that issue because, he says, the county commissioners violated the county’s comprehensive plan for growth when they approved the facility.

Now he’s taken his opinion that the commissioners could do a better job listening one large step further: he’s running against one of them for office.

Incumbent Dick Panabaker, a Republican, will face Stine, an independent, in the race for the District 3 slot on the board of county commissioners.

Stine, 40, is a supervisor of building services for Target in Coeur d’Alene. He listed listening to citizens and planning growth in the county as two of the most important issues facing Kootenai County.

“I sat down and I thought about what brought people to Idaho. It certainly wasn’t a big-city, Spokane-type atmosphere. It’s a rural, small-town atmosphere with close-knit communities,” he said.

At the end of the fourth year of his first term, Panabaker wondered if Stine knows what the job entails.

“It’s up and down and all over the place and nothing I know of on the outside prepares you for being a commissioner,” he said.

Panabaker, 57, is a Hayden resident who has lived in the area all his life.

Both cite taxes as a concern. Stine thinks taxes, especially property taxes, need to go down.

“Taxes were lower last year and the county ran fine. What are they doing with that money?” he questioned. “Take a look at property values. Are they a little bit erroneous or over-inflated? Especially lake-front properties.”

Stine also thinks the sales tax on food should be eliminated.

But taxes overall have decreased over the past few years, Panabaker said, adding the county saved tax money by building a new administration building.

“We were spending $220,000 in rent,” he said.

A few of Stine’s other issues include promoting low-cost youth activities and possibly incentives to businesses that hire full-time employees with benefits.

Panabaker said growth management and finishing projects he and the commissioners have started such as decreasing overcrowding in the county jail are some of the most important issues.

He listed some of his accomplishments while in office as building a better rapport with county employees and streamlining the budget.