Incompetence or malfeasance?

Incompetence or malfeasance? That is always the question when a government entity is found to have violated the law.

We see it now in Lake Pend Oreille School District’s contention that ignoring a clearly worded Idaho law pertaining to required ballot language when proposing a permanent supplemental levy was “a technical error” (albeit to their advantage), but committed “in good faith.”

We are to believe that LPOSD, who often prides itself on accountability and thoroughness and who keeps track of laws through regular meetings and discussions with legislators, just simply forgot to list on that ballot the fact that the levy would cost us $214 per hundred thousand of taxable property value. We are to forgive and forget the omission of that detail and accept the outcome of the levy anyway.

The levy passed with the tiniest margin ever, 1%. Common sense tells us that fully informed voters would have balked had they seen, in black and white, the effect on their property taxes. It didn’t surface until they received their property tax bills a week after the levy vote.

This levy cannot be allowed to stand. It was perpetrated with faulty ballot language – by mistake or on purpose, take your pick – and it begs to be annulled. A Sagle citizen has filed a lawsuit to do just that, and at his own expense. LPOSD is fighting him with four attorneys, paid for with our taxes.

Please go to IdahoTaxWatch.com, a nonprofit that supports this citizen’s fight against this injustice.

Monique Hutchings

Sagle