In case you missed it, at the July 17th Boundary County School Board meeting the board voted to run a bond in the upcoming November election. The measure failed last year, but they are still determined to get a new Valley View School. Board members voted unanimously to take this action and are working on a marketing plan to put before the voters (they actually believe that the reason the bond didn’t pass last year was because they didn’t market it well). Therefore, between now and the election, they’ll be resorting to fear porn (similar to that which the city of BF used to get their tax increase) – explaining that if we don’t approve the bond, the board will then propose a plant facility levy which will ultimately cost us three times more!
If that’s not enough, Boundary County Commissioners and Boundary Ambulance are considering an ambulance ballot measure in the same upcoming November election. The plan was to ask the voters for an increase to the Ambulance tax from .0002 to .0006! That’s 3 times the current rate! Thankfully, it was brought to their attention that according to the statutes they are ONLY permitted to increase the rate to .0004. And it’s not clear yet whether they will even need to have a ballot measure (no vote!). If that’s the case, the 3 Commissioners may simply be able to vote at a board meeting on whether to increase every resident’s ambulance tax. Check your most recent property tax bill. Our share is currently $135 per year and they’re talking about doubling it overnight!
Add to all of this the fact that Three Mile Water recently approved an increase in their base rate by 33%. It went into effect on our most recent statement.
As I’ve said before – when is it ever enough?! The city of Bonners Ferry already got their 1 cent sales tax increase – it went into effect on July 1st.
Each entity will tell you that it’s just a little amount, or we haven’t increased the rate in years, or it’s temporary, or we have to keep up with inflation, blah, blah, blah. The cumulative effect of all of this is killing us and they don’t care. If we do not elect the right people, we are in big trouble.
I wonder what “they” would do if enough of us just don’t comply as “they” keep on raping us…..I can’t speak for anyone else, but I question the integrity of our local elections……..
I agree completely. We also need to vote out the existing Republican (RINO) central committee and demand a full forensic accounting of all city and county departments.
Thank you, Jeanine. I’m reminded of the adage, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance,” a variant of a quotation by Irish lawyer and politician John Philpot Curran, who said in a speech in Dublin back on July 10, 1790, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.”
We all need to be mindful of the old “frog in the pot” strategy when it comes to the acceptance of more and more taxes and bond measures. Pass one tax or bond measure for a worthy-sounding cause, and then you start seeing one after the other on future election ballots, always supported by the media in its election recommendations. Then you wonder why your state’s bond rating gets downgraded, and your own tax burden has become unbearable. I’m not saying we need to oppose each and every local/regional bond or tax measure, but there must be transparency and an established record of being responsible stewards of their share of the public purse.
Did you know there are, as of the 12/29/2022 voter roll
5578 Republicans
1275 Unaffiliated
481 Democrats
67 Liberians
45 Constitutionalists
Democrats are not the problem in Boundary County