City offers clarification on Sandpoint tax levy

A reader of the blogs (I don’t read them — they are way too mean spirited) brought to my attention the assertion that the city’s levy rate had increased by 56 percent. I did some checking and this is the accurate information:

2009 tax levy — 0.003495207

2010 tax levy 0.004287162

The percentage of change — 22.66 percent.

Please note this change is largely in part to the decrease in assessed valuations.

In 2009, the city of Sandpoint levied $3,032,503 in tax dollars.

In 2010, the city of Sandpoint levied $3,209,145 in tax dollars.

The percentage of change is 5.82 percent.

Regarding the great “donut/cake caper,” it is accurate that, on occasion, departments will purchase a cake to celebrate a retirement; one department purchases a birthday cake per month and celebrates all the birthdays at once. Some departments purchase subs when they are providing training for other agencies (fire, police) and the training fees reimburse those costs.

If several of those purchases occurred in one month, it might appear that this is occurring all the time when in fact it does not. Is this expense a game changer in the scheme of things? Absolutely not. Would I prefer that employees pay the cost of their own celebrations? Yes I would.

CARRIE LOGAN

Sandpoint