Tax reform is in the hands of citizens

A story by Betsy Russell in the Spokesman-Review revealed in clear terms the enormous hurdle taxpayers and landowners face in combating a misguided and misdirected legislature in Boise.

There is a malaise infecting the Legislature from top to bottom. Their disease is arrogance — arrogance from being in office too long.

Delores Crow (R-Nampa), chairwoman of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, is a poster relic of an old-time movie. Picture a black hat as she offers taxpayers two minutes to state their case for property tax relief. Additionally, she declares a cutoff date for this type of legislation — with an unannounced caveat. She allows Scott Turlington of Tamarack Resort near McCall to present his fix for the infamous "developer windfall" property tax. Developers, like Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, are obligated to pay pocket change for acreage near McCall that in Sandpoint is being taxed thousands of dollars.

What brought about this nightmarish, ever-deepening pit? In my opinion, people are in office too long. How do we fix things? It's complicated and long. But, in the short term, the committee for Sensible Taxation Of Property (STOP) has in its hands a fairly quick remedy for property tax relief. It is our property tax relief initiative.

Volunteers are currently gathering signatures in and around Sandpoint. We hope to have people from other areas such Hope, Clark Fork and Priest River to help soon. The initiative caps your property tax at 1 percent per year using 2004 as its base year. There are other benefits that volunteers will explain. Creating this initiative has been long, difficult and costly.

If you want tax relief, we need to take it out of the hands of legislators.

BOB CHENAULT

President, STOP

Sandpoint