Amendment opponent gaining support

COEUR d'ALENE - Some Kootenai County residents are voicing support of a Boise activist campaigning against constitutional amendments slated for the November ballot.

David Frazier, Boise Guardian blog editor who recently spoke to county organizations, says voters will lose their voice if they approve House Joint resolutions 4, 5 and 7.

The amendments would consecutively allow public hospitals, airports and municipal electric systems to incur debt for projects without the two-thirds voter approval currently required.

That could result in entities spending out of control, Frazier said.

"What the amendments would do would be to eliminate the citizen oversight from the equation," said Frazier, scheduled to appear on public television Thursday night to discuss the issue.

Frazier worries how airports will spend if the public approves HJR 5, allowing local government entities that operate airports, as well as regional airports, to issue revenue and special facility bonds for big purchases.

Airports might purchase facilities they can't afford to keep, Frazier said, resulting in foreclosure.

"I'm not just worried about it. The potential exists," he said.

He also pointed out controversy that has been raised before about HJR 4, which would allow hospitals to incur debt for over a year to buy new equipment and facilities.

Hospitals could start buying more just to compete with each other, he said.

Marv Lekstrum, board member of the North Idaho Pachyderm Club that recently heard Frazier speak, said he now opposes the amendments, too.

"Anything that takes the vote away from the people is wrong," Lekstrum said.

Coeur d'Alene businessman Dan Gookin also supports Frazier's position, he said.

He worries that public entities will start relying more on user fees than tax revenue, he said.

"In the long term it concerns me, because I can see a disconnect between elected officials and the people they're paid to represent," he said.

Local governments had previously been able to incur debt without voter approval for projects deemed as necessary and ordinary expenses.

This power was overturned in 2006, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Frazier in a lawsuit against the city of Boise.

"It's kind of sad (seeing this come up again)," Frazier said.

But Greg Delavan, manager of the Pappy Boyington Field Airport in Hayden, said that HJR 5 would allow the airport to purchase equipment not covered by grant funds.

He pointed out that the airport had briefly incurred debt to purchase infrastructure like sewer, gas and roads without voter approval for several years, before the 2006 Frazier case.

"We didn't abuse it before, I don't see why we'd abuse it now," Delavan said.

County Commissioner Rick Currie doubts the airport would overspend, as all expenditures must be approved by the county commissioners.

Elected officials are usually very tactful about spending, he added.

"The ballot box works quite well when you don't handle those funds appropriately," he said.

Currie added that the amendment would help the airport run more efficiently.

"Airports for the most part, we would like them to be enterprise centers," Currie said. "They need to be ran as a business."

Currie has confidence that hospitals like Kootenai Medical Center could handle the extra spending power under HJR 4, he added.

"The hospital district, it has an elected board of directors that has done an extremely good job," he said. "There is one example of how these organizations can operate as a business."