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KTEC? YES!

| August 15, 2010 9:00 PM

The financial crisis is not a good reason to oppose KTEC.

It's the best reason to vote for it.

We understand that many Kootenai County residents are suffering from the recession and ridiculous tax increases, and that every purchase and investment has to be scrutinized thoroughly. Along with some needs, most wants are being rejected. We submit that on Aug. 24, the proposal to fund a new Kootenai Technical Education Campus is not a wish; it's a need that will repay Kootenai County residents and taxpayers many times over.

The request before voters is this:

The public will receive a 50,000-square-foot high school for students learning marketable trades including construction, automotive, welding and health care. When KTEC opens in 2013, about 180 students will initially be served. That figure is expected to grow exponentially in future years.

Paying for KTEC won't be pain free. If you own a home in the Coeur d'Alene School District that's worth $200,000, your property tax bill will go up about $35 a year for two years. That same home in the Post Falls district will not see an increase because an existing levy is expiring. However, if the measure fails, this Post Falls homeowner will save about $55 a year for two years. And if you live in the Lakeland School District, passage of the measure will mean an increase in your property tax bill of roughly $50 for each of the next two years.

With respect to the financial hardship so many are facing, we won't downplay what those sums represent. But we urge you to support this measure because we're convinced the short-term pain will be rewarded with long-term gain.

Our country is losing hundreds of thousands of jobs to interests overseas. Competition is incredibly difficult when an American industry pays an employee a livable wage with benefits while a Chinese counterpart pays that employee less than $1 an hour with no benefits. We need every advantage we can get in the global marketplace, and one advantage that is about to become available to us is training a highly skilled workforce in jobs that are in great demand right here in our back yard.

Other benefits abound. Short term, a big capital project with plenty of construction jobs will boost the local economy. Longer term, more jobs in education, paid for by the state and federal government, will be created and sustained for KTEC consumers. The local dropout rate will decline and with it, crime also is likely to decrease. And over the years, hundreds, perhaps thousands of parents will see their KTEC-educated children find good jobs in Kootenai County and no longer watch helplessly as their children are forced to move somewhere they can afford to raise a family.

Passage by a 55 percent margin is required for the building itself. While state funding will pay for operations and maintenance, the private sector is being called upon to ensure modern equipment is donated to KTEC. We see that as a strength, rather than a weakness. The industries that will benefit most from this subsidized source of superb local labor will be motivated to ensure their future employees are being trained with the latest technology and equipment. When the public and private sectors merge intellectual and material capital, good things typically follow.

We strongly encourage voters throughout Kootenai County to support the Aug. 24 facilities levies. Soon we'll be training a powerful workforce that can stay home and make our communities stronger.