Make your views known on city's BID tax

Regarding the column written by Kathleen Hyde in the Daily Bee’s BonnerBIZ (March 25), and the comments made therein, I am compelled to respond. Since we began our second petition drive this January, Kathleen has been very busy defending the “essential” functions the DSBA provides for those within the Business Improvement District who are forced to pay the tax which funds her office.

In her article she boasts that the DSBA has been able to reduce their administrative costs from near 80 percent when they first began (80 percent, did you hear that!). Well, as of the end of fiscal year 2009 they had effectively trimmed the administrative fat down to 61 percent. Way to go! However, that grand “accomplishment” pales in comparison to the reductions I and virtually every other private sector business has been forced to take in order to keep business going in these tough times.

One of the primary duties assigned to the DSBA in its administration of the BID tax monies was to deal with Sandpoint’s parking issues. In the formation of the BID, 10 years ago, it was agreed that for the first $107,215 assessment, $45,000 would go to parking improvements. According to the 2009 DSBA profit-and-loss statement a grand total of $51 was spent directly on parking and they still managed to run a deficit of $5,565.66.

Next, Kathleen chastised me in her article for never attending a parking committee meeting. Why would I attend a parking meeting when I’m not in downtown, do not have parking issues and in fact have my own parking lot which I have created, paid for and continue to pay for through property taxes and upkeep? She goes on to humble me for not attending any marketing committee meetings. What would compel me to attend those meetings when my business has done its own marketing for 19 years and has always preferred to make those decisions in house?

As a petitioner, Kathleen scolds me for lack of involvement with the DSBA. Is this to imply that starting a manufacturing business from scratch 19 years ago, remodeling and maintaining a historic building at great expense, creating rental spaces for six additional businesses who might otherwise have moved out of town, paying my dues and taxes, employing people whenever possible and giving donations and help whenever we can is not sufficient involvement in our business community?

Kathleen goes on to claim that I am almost two years behind in paying my assessment when I am, in fact, paid in full. Of all people she should have known that was the case before putting that accusation in print. That brings the total I’ve paid into this boondoggle to $6,000 and I am at a complete loss to elucidate what this expense has done to help my business.

I have not paid this money to reap the proclaimed multitude of benefits showered on my business and my business community by the DSBA. I have paid because of, what I refer to as, “The Collections Incentive.”

I encourage all who feel as I do, or at least acknowledge that the BID serves to divide and irritate our business community and that the DSBA can go on doing good deeds without taxing nearly 400 businesses for their services, to sign the petition to disband the BID tax. Please do so right away as the deadline imposed by the city is April 1.

CHRIS PARK

Sandpoint

Misty Mountain Furniture