Post Falls schools look at tax

POST FALLS – The Post Falls School Board is backing a resolution to renew the statewide one-cent sales tax to help fund education and provide property tax relief.

The resolution, drafted by Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane, was unanimously approved by the school board on Monday.

Other Idaho school boards are considering backing the proposal, which will be forwarded to the Idaho School Boards Association and possibly to lawmakers.

Trustee Michelle Lippert commended Keane, saying the proposal was well thought-out and creative.

“This would be a great step,” she said Monday.

The resolution proposes using the additional revenue in three ways.

Of the estimated $180 million that would be collected, the resolution suggests putting 50 percent toward property tax relief by increasing the homeowner’s exemption. About 35 percent of the additional revenue would go to the state’s appropriation for public schools, and 15 percent would be used for property tax replacement.

Keane identified several concerns in the resolution, which he says would be addressed through the added revenue. The concerns include a public school budget that hasn’t kept pace with rising energy and health care expenses and an increasing reliance on tax levies to make up for budget shortfalls. The resolution says the districts have the same amount of discretionary funds as in 2001 and have gone five years without an increase for salaries.

The proposal is one of many that have surfaced because of soaring property values and concerns about property tax relief.

Boundary County School District officials announced this spring that they supported a local-option sales tax to fund the district’s cash-strapped schools, and the Idaho Education Association is considering a proposal of its own.

“Anything that would provide property tax relief is certainly something that needs to be looked at,” Ron Schmidt, assistant superintendent of Lakeland schools, said Monday.

Schmidt said his district, like others, has been struggling to strike a balance between maintaining low levy rates and supporting property tax relief while trying to provide students with a good education.

Coeur d’Alene Superintendent Harry Amend said the Coeur d’Alene School Board is looking forward to seeing Keane’s resolution.

Each fall, the Idaho School Boards Association considers resolutions submitted by Idaho’s school districts. Some may be formalized and then sent on to the Legislature.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, a member of the Legislature’s Property Tax Interim Committee, said Monday that some of the resolutions that have been proposed by various groups are conflicting.

“We have heard talk about the sales tax replacing some of the local funding for schools before,” Sayler said. “It’s not a brand new idea. Yet another one is a local-option sales tax.”

Sayler said the interim committee will begin considering possible recommendations in September after traveling the state to hear concerns and ideas for property tax relief.

“It’s hard for me to predict, at this point, what is going to happen,” he said.