Hard Way Or Easy, This Will Be Done

Sat., May 22, 1999

By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com (509) 319-0354

Kootenai County residents are kidding themselves if they think there’s some way other than the property tax or local-option sales tax to pay for a $9.5 million expansion of their overcrowded jail.

Either they vote Tuesday to raise the state sales tax in Kootenai County a half cent, to 5.5 percent - and let summer visitors help pay for reconstruction - or they stand pat and watch their property taxes go up. It’s only a matter of time before a court orders the work done. Or the county begins shipping prisoners elsewhere - a move that would squander $12 million over about a decade.

Some 20 businesses, including a handful of car dealers, are fighting the sales-tax option, claiming it will chase away business. But it’s hard to see how. An additional $150 in sales tax is nothing to a buyer intent on paying $30,000 for a new sport utility vehicle. Certainly, a sales tax of 5.5 percent isn’t going to scare off shoppers from Spokane County, who have to pay an 8.1 percent sales tax.

A month ago, The Spokesman-Review editorial board agreed that a sales tax increase was the best of two options to pay for the expansion. We did so after closely questioning Commissioner Ron Rankin, Idaho’s best-known tax activist, who is pushing the sales tax option hard. Now, we see we are not alone. The measure also is supported by the Coeur d’Alene Board of Realtors, Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, Kootenai Perspectives, Kootenai County Veterans Council, the Republican Central Committee and Kootenai County Property Owners Association.

The measure Tuesday requires 60 percent support for passage. As proposed, the local-option tax will raise an estimated $24.1 million over its life of five years. About half of the money will be used to remodel and expand the jail, the other half for property tax relief. County commissioners predict visitors and tourists will pay 25 percent to 35 percent of the new revenue.

Unquestionably, the work is necessary. The jail, which opened in 1987 to house 88 prisoners and was later expanded to accommodate 127, had a daily average of 192 in March. The overcrowding will only get worse.

On Wednesday, the commissioners announced they could raise property taxes $1.7 million annually to fund the jail work if voters reject the sales tax. You may view the statement as political blackmail. But we see it as a reality.

The county can’t wait much longer for residents to decide how they’re going to pay for a bigger jail.

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