Sandpoint Local Option Tax
When the previous, 5-year Local Option Tax expired last December, we suspected it would be only a matter of time before a new one would surface. Less than a year later, here we are.
As in 2015, Mayor Rognstad rushed this tax proposal through at record speed. Some Council members voiced concerns about why now, and why so fast? The Mayor and City Administrator were ready with an answer: get in line for more federal funds; fight COVID; and improve mental health. In other words, digging deep to find something, anything, to justify a $13 million tax for the next 7 years and hoping people will buy it. Disappointingly, the Council caved.
According to the ballot, this expenditure is for Parks and Recreation projects, with sidewalk improvements seemingly thrown in as an afterthought and making up less than 10% of the total cost. The ballot language of “including but not limited to (in no priority order)” regarding the intended projects leaves the door wide open to whatever else the Council and Mayor want to spend these funds on during the next seven years. There is no transparency and accountability.
We saw this with the last L.O.T. For instance, no one informed the citizens, before or after the vote, that thirty healthy, mature trees would be removed from Memorial Field to build bleachers of a size more enormous than anyone had expected. A lame apology by the Parks & Rec director followed.
What surprises await us if THIS tax passes?
We need clarity and accountability. Vote AGAINST this tax.
Louis F. Perry
Sandpoint, ID
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