State’s tax debate heads to city halls

With booming growth bringing more cash to North Idaho coffers lately, some citizens are asking city and county officials to heed citizens’ cries over property tax increases.

That’s exactly what Kelly Richards, executive director of Concerned Businesses of North Idaho, will ask of the cities of Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene this week at public budget workshops.

“We’re going to be speaking with every taxing district,” said Richards, explaining that the group will ask local taxing entities to refrain from taking the 3 percent annual increase in property taxes allowed by state law. “I’m not putting a target on any one district.”

A workshop to unveil the proposed Post Falls budget and allow citizen comment will begin at 5 p.m. today at City Hall before the regular City Council meeting.

Coeur d’Alene will hold a similar workshop at 5:15 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.

Kootenai County commissioners have said they intend to forgo the 3 percent increase, but Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene city officials have proposed to take the full 3 percent increase for their budgets.

Coeur d’Alene’s city finance director, Troy Tymesen, previously said he proposes the city take the entire 3 percent increase – about $353,000. That would equate to about $10 for the owner of a $100,000 home because the levy rate used to calculate the property tax amount is going down, Tymesen said.

But Richards and members of her group believe that money should not be taken from the pockets of county residents.

“When we’re seeing such huge growth,” Richards said, “we would like to see taxing entities not take the full 3 percent.”

Post Falls, which writes a two-year budget each summer, has included the 3 percent increase for both the 2007 and 2008 budget years, said that city’s finance director, Shelly Enderud.

City Administrator Jim Hammond said Post Falls officials would like the increase to fund rising operating costs, largely related to the price of fuel for vehicles, and to hire several more city employees.

The city is not trying to prepare for stagnant revenue-generating years by adding too many employees now, but trying to catch up with other cities in the area, Hammond said.

“I would submit to you that in terms of employees, we are still understaffed,” Hammond said. “We are not padding employees. The growth dollars do help us keep up, but we’re still behind.”

That’s why many departments are going to gain additional full-time or part-time staff members if the proposed budget of more than $13.8 million for 2007 and $14.5 million for 2008 is approved. Three new police officers made it through city budget meetings to the final proposal, as did positions in parks and recreation, the street department, planning and zoning, the library, urban forestry and more.

With the additional officers, the city will increase its ratio from 1.4 officers per 1,000 city residents to about 1.6 officers per 1,000.

“That’s still below Coeur d’Alene, which is at 1.7,” Hammond said.

He added that, though it sounds “hokey,” the city’s goal is to ensure that parents do not have to worry whether their children are safe outside.

“If Post Falls was out in the middle of nowhere, you could probably get away with less,” he said.

Richards said the goal of a government should be to do more with less. “It’s just a mantra of ours,” she said.

She also said that levy rates may decrease because of the overall increase in property values in the area, but people will still pay for the new value on a property assessment that has gone up.

“To us, that is why you’re seeing the tax revolt right now,” Richards said. “The bottom line is we are a business lobbying group, but every property owner is feeling the pinch.”