How many will lose homes to excessive taxes?

After reading the article, "Homeowners' taxes reaching record levels," I was pondering how many retired fixed income homeowners would be losing their homes to excessive taxes this year.

Then I noticed Chris White's letter leaning on us to increase our taxes once again for "the children" and the "bigger picture." I thought about growing up in Bonner County, the greatest recreation area in the world. Some unseen force even changed the seasons on a fairly regular basis so we kids would reap the benefits. Swimming all summer, hunting all fall, skiing, sledding and ice skating all winter, and fishing interfered with my chores and school all year. There was always a field for ball, a road for a race and a hill for a hike.

I would never have thought to ask my parents for a California-style "recreation building" and they would have considered me ungrateful if I had.

Nearly all the facilities that White mentions, currently exist in the Sandpoint area. The "few dollars more" in taxes may just be the ones that break the back of a retired couple who worked here all of their lives and dragged, pulled and nurtured this community to where it is today.

If this program has as much support as is claimed, financing with private grants and organizational support should be no problem. Chris White says the rising tide of taxes will raise my boat. Perhaps Chris could stop by and make an index mark of my financial statement, so that I will know when my boat starts to rise.

DALE ROBERTSON

Laclede