The property tax cow has been milked dry

In your interview in the Jan. 25 Bee, LPOSD Superintendent Dick Cvitanich made a case for the desirability of the passage of the supplemental levy but he did not discuss the dwindling tax resources he plans to use to fund this levy.

Probably every branch of government in Bonner County has increased its budget. Meanwhile, Gov. Butch Otter, has made drastic cutbacks. He cut about 5 1/2 percent from the schools but made as much as a 56-percent cut in other areas. What this means is that the cities and counties are going to have a budget shortfall because a good deal of their revenues come from the state coffers. The question is, how much of this shortfall are the property taxpayers willing to shoulder?

In the past 10 years or so, there has been a gradual increase in the property tax burden onto homeowners. Timber and agriculture used to share a larger bite from the property tax pie, but over the years tax laws were changed and the shift occurred. I am not advocating that we go back and increase the taxes on farms and timber. What I am suggesting is that we find some other source of tax revenue to fund the schools than the already overburdened homeowner.

What Superintendent Cvitanich did not discuss was how the increase of every listed category on the property tax bill can be reconciled with the taxpayer's income which has stayed the same or possibly decreased.  What does the homeowner have to forego in their own families lives in order to pay this ever increasing bill? In my mind, the property tax cow is being milked dry. I am voting no on the LPOSD supplemental levy.

TRECY CARPENTER

Hope