ASSESSED: It doesn't add up

Mr. Mike McDowell, I just read my Assessment Notice for my residence in Kootenai County. At a time when property values are plunging and homeowners are suffering tremendous real value losses, you have the audacity to actually raise evaluations. You seem to be suffering the same nearsightedness that is currently in vogue in Washington, D.C.

You must realize this cannot be realistic in view of the bigger picture. If the problem is in the prescribed method of evaluation then you need to consider revising your methodology, before it bites us all in the backside! As a public administrator, that is your job. You have been elected to MAKE THINGS WORK in real time, not just to blindly follow past policy.

Apparently you somehow believe that by financially damaging your constituency you will solve your bureaucratic financial problems. Consider reality, make your budget meet the real potential for income like your constituent taxpayers must. Otherwise you will find yourself in a situation like many banks today where they administer a lot of empty rotting houses! You are deluded if you think you are going to increase tax revenues this way.

This pattern of thinking comes from the idea that some way most people will just comply. But anyone who is aware of the extent of home loan defaults over the last year or two and the direction in which that statistic is moving will realize the foolishness of that belief.

Wake up, before you undermine your own revenue base!

DAVID KEYES

Harrison