Full disclosure needed

Property assessments were under fire two years ago with Mr. Clemons blaming Judi Conlan for not having enough assessors and being unable to keep up with the Realtors who were having a fire sale of Bonner County property.

Of course it was Ms. Conlan's fault that Joe Young, Marcia Phillips and Karl Dye ignored her when she asked for funding for new people. Our prior two county assessors had access to the MLS file, then the Realtors backed out. David Keyes, April 28, 2006, pushed for full sales price disclosure with many others of us. The commissioners ignored the suggestion. Note that Phillips and Dye lost their bid for reelection. Young is trying to get reelected this fall. Realtors 1, taxpayers 0.

Fast forward to now. MLS let the assessor's office back into their data when there was a movement afoot to have required property sales prices reported to the assessor's office.

Idaho state law requires assessed property values to be market values. Our county commissioners recently fumbled the ball and dropped the ordinance which would have required reporting the sales prices. Now I've had two new assessors-in-training up at my place “getting acquainted with the territory.” We are right back to square one. Realtors 1, taxpayers 0.

If the Bonner County commissioners would pass the ordinance to require full disclosure, half the county wouldn't have to contest their property assessments. One would think the commissioners could sandwich in the ordinance between approving every developer's plans.

PETE HERAPER

Sandpoint