Idaho officials should require full disclosure of purchase price

The short answer is yes, the Daily Bee will be hosting a candidate forum prior to the May 23 primaries.

The rest of the answer is yes, all candidates will be invited but only the ones in contested races will be allowed to answer questions.

The only answer I don't have is when and where. Stay tuned as we merge grange forums and others so we don't double book the candidates.

Last week I promised to come up with a plan to get Bonner County out of its assessment mess and keep it ahead of the curve.

As we all know by now, the Bonner County Assessor's Office didn't appraise nearly 2,300 parcels of new construction, including 1,385 homes that have building permits.

The best guess is that this backlog cost every taxpayer in the county a lot more than a few pizzas.

The commissioners and Assessor Judie Conlan agreed on a plan to hire 12 Kootenai County appraisers as temporary employees to appraise 520 parcels.

The commissioners and assessor could legally go back two years to assess new construction but chose to not do so.

The current assessor's staff will also be very busy catching up and Conlan told me she is pulling them off "what they are supposed to be doing" in order to go back.

While I can't agree with not going back as far as legally allowed, at least the commissioners and assessor are on the same page … for the first time in about two years.

The fingerpointing and the "she said, they said" accusations of the past two years has seriously hurt this county as well as every entity that relies on tax support.

A plan

The state of Idaho needs to adopt full disclosure when a piece of property sells. What this sheet of paper would state is the selling price of a piece of property.

This simple statement would give an accurate assessment of exactly what the property is worth. Instead, this state doesn't require it and every title officer from American Falls to Eastport will tell a client not to sign a voluntary form stating the sales price.

That simple move would instantly bring all new sales up to speed.

Another thought was delivered to me by Ed Ostrom.

"We trust our own citizens to vote, pay their taxes and to not break the law," he said. "Why not trust them to appraise their own property?"

I tried not to smile.

While I am sure most citizens are honest and integrity there would have to be a check system, he continued.

"Trust. Then verify?" I answered, attempting to quote Ronald Reagan.

"Yes, there would have to be a panel of citizens to look over the appraisals to see if they were accurate. If they were, great. If they weren't…the panel would set up a meeting with the property owner," he said.

There would also be a "taxpayer's amnesty" implemented right away so that the folks who haven't been paying their fair share of taxes — and you know who you are — could catchup without fear of prosecution.

Ostrom has a list of homeowners who mostly live near the county's lakes and rivers who have fabulous pieces of land and glorious homes that are assessed substantially under half of their real value.

He is steamed about it. He wants the system fixed.

What do you think?

Brace yourself, Boundary County.

It appears Sunset Magazine has Boundary County in its sights in an upcoming issue.

A handful of people have told me they were interviewed about an article that will highlight some of the country's best places for retirement.

We all remember it was two Sunset stories, followed by USA Today and everyone else, that started Bonner County's latest land rush three years ago.

It's no coincidence that title companies and real estate offices are opening in Bonners Ferry faster than mills are closing.

It has been some time since Sandpoint was included in a "best of…" list, but the slump is over.

In the July Men's Journal magazine, Sandpoint was named the top "telecommunity" because of the people who live here and deliver work via the phone or Internet.

I'm assuming the magazine met Sandpoint proper, since most of the county doesn't have access to DSL and rumor has it some parts of the county still have rotary dialed phones.

Other Idaho cities cited were: Boise, as an adventure city; McCall, as a most active town and Last Chance was named a "mecca" for its fly fishing on the Henrys Fork River.

Ben Stein is this area's biggest promoter on the national front. Last Saturday he appeared on the Fox network on Neil Cavuto: On The Money.

The panel discussion turned to Wal-Mart. Stein reportedly challenged the panel by stating he was the only person there to shop at Wal-Mart and that he loves to shop at the Wal-Mart in Ponderay, Idaho.

"We nearly fell out of our chairs," said Richard Hutter.

Sheriff's log, April 17: Deputies responded to a Sagle residence a little past midnight after a report of screaming. "It was a loud movie," according to the report.

Overheard at the St. Francis Easter Egg hunt:

Kathy McIntire telling a story of a recent talk about the Twelve Disciples. Miss Kathy asked the class about who was present at the Last Supper.

Hands shot up all over the classroom and one munchkin blurted out, "The Twelve Cycles."

Athlete's Choice is my favorite athletic store. Ray and Cindy Smith have done a great job. The selection is amazing and their prices are lower than online. I bought some ASICS running shoes there this week and saved $20 from the lowest online offer I could find.

I have written it here before: It pays to shop at home.

E-mail of the week:

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he sees a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!"

Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!," says the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"

See KEYES, Page 3

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up.

The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says,

"Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says: "Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"

? David Keyes is publisher of the Bee. His column runs weekly.