Where is the fairness in Sandpoint's BID?

The Business Improvement District defended by Kathleen Hyde in the BonnerBIZ supplement (Daily Bee, Jan. 27), creates an unfair and unequal tax on many business owners in Sandpoint, especially those located west of Fifth Avenue. Other businesses that gain little or nothing from the BID include businesses that involve manufacturing and other businesses that don’t depend on walk-in or tourist traffic.

Ms. Hyde specifically mentions street and alley clean up, landscaping, colorful banners, benches and bike racks. There is none of this west of Fifth Avenue. In fact, the city refuses to maintain alleyways in most areas of Sandpoint. Yet businesses located to the west of Fifth Avenue pay the same tax as businesses on First Avenue but get little or nothing in return.

Where is the fairness in taxation when Panhandle State Bank takes up a full block plus their own parking lot and pay little more than a key and lock shop or a sewing business. The BID tax maximum is $65 per month.

In a city finance committee workshop on July 23, 2008, three of the four council members present stated either that the BID boundaries should be reduced or the BID tax rate should be reevaluated to be more equitable. It was further stated that there was supposed to be a review of the BID boundaries by a DSBA committee before or shortly after the “next DSBA” elections. Nothing was changed.

In the summer of 2010, two petitions to the council to end the BID tax were disallowed by the city (not the council) because of technicalities. It should be noted that the original petition to form the BID contained technical errors that should have voided it but there is a statute of limitations of seven years that prevents a challenge of the original document.

The BID was, therefore, formed through a document that should have been invalidated.

The BID exists at the whim of City Council. Council can dissolve it at any time without a petition being filed. Council members and the mayor know that the BID is based on improper documents protected by a technicality in the law. Council members know that a majority of business owners want the BID dissolved. Council members know that the petition to end the BID was thrown out by the city administrators for technicalities, not because business owners don’t want the tax.

\Why doesn’t council dissolve the BID? Is it because the mayor and council members know that many business owners don’t reside in the city and can therefore not vote in city elections? Also the mayor and council members know that, despite the loss of downtown businesses, most residents know or care little about the BID since it doesn’t directly affect them?

PATRICIA BARKLEY

Sandpoint