Hayden voters to decide on future

HAYDEN — With council member Matt Roetter voting against, the Hayden City Council approved ballot language calling for a $1,633,000 levy rate override at a town hall meeting Tuesday night. Voters will decide to approve or defeat the measure at the ballot box Nov. 6. Passage requires 60 percent approval. Levy rates would increase from the current $1.23 per $1,000 of assessed value to $2.50 per $1,000.

Members of the public spoke up for and against the measure. Jerry Darien, who owns a personal hobby shop in Hayden that gets taxed as a commercial building, said his taxes would increase approximately $2,000.

“I have a problem with this increase. It looks pretty serious to me,” he said.

Russ McLain said the money on additional law enforcement would be well spent.

“What you’re buying is worth the money,” he said.

Ron Catlin, who lives in the approximately 200-home senior citizen community Leisure Park, said he and his neighbors were “not real excited” about the levy override proposal. The HOA maintains its own roads and they don’t have crime. Because most of them live on fixed incomes, increases in taxes and costs of living hurt them, Catlin said.

“How much tax can we really afford?” he asked. “This is going to be a great burden to senior citizens and people living paycheck to paycheck. The amount of the increase is more than they can bear.” He said while some increase may be necessary, perhaps the increase could be less drastic.

Hayden resident Angie Talbot supported the increase for law enforcement but wasn’t as sure about the money for roads. She suggested that Walmart, which averages 1.6 calls for law enforcement per day, hire its own law enforcement.

Fellow city resident Eileen Johnson said she would not vote for the levy override. “Trying to double our taxes — that is outrageous.”

The proposed new money would go to pay for road maintenance and additional law enforcement coverage, explained city administrator Brett Boyer. Public works director Alan Soderling explained that additional funds would enable the city to keep its 175 lane miles of roads in above-average condition for the next 20 years. If the city doesn’t increase its annual road maintenance from $350,000 to $980,000, 20 years from now city residents will inherit roads that are falling apart and in need of $19 million in additional maintenance, said Soderling.

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said the increase of $653,000 per year for law enforcement would provide Hayden with a dedicated sheriff’s deputy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Currently the city has three dedicated deputies and a school resource officer, leaving gaps in coverage that have to be covered by other county deputies. According to Detective Dennis Stinebaugh, county deputies responded to 8,773 calls for service in Hayden in 2017, including 343 arrests and 286 accidents. That amounts to increases of 24 percent, 45 percent and 80 percent since 2010, said the sheriff.

City attorney John Cafferty explained that since the ballot language explicitly names the purpose of the new funds, by law future city councils could not use those funds for other purposes.

Council members debated whether the ballot language should explain how much the Hayden Urban Renewal Agency’s budget would increase, if the city levy rate override passed. Roetter argued that in the interests of transparency, the ballot should detail the approximately $100,000 increase HURA would receive if city voters approved the city’s levy hike. Attorneys for the city countered that the state legislature didn’t require such detail, and that numbers for other taxing districts like HURA were hard to pin down.

“Ethically we need to disclose it,” Roetter said.

Also, as Roetter began to explain his opposition to the proposed tax hike, Cafferty interrupted to remind him that, due to recent changes in state law, city council members could not use public resources — such as a town hall meeting — to air their views for or against the measure. Roetter limited himself to the technical question of the ballot language. Council president Roger Saterfiel also had to rein himself in during his comments on the proposal.

Earlier in the meeting council member Richard Panabaker, who served as mayor 30 years ago, assured town hall participants that the city’s officials had worked hard over the years to use their tax dollars wisely.

“We haven’t wasted your money,” he said. “We’re glad to see you here. We want your questions.”

Boyer said residents are welcome to contact city officials for more information ahead of a second town hall meeting scheduled for Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m.

Council members proceeded to approve the ballot language without mention of HURA. The county has the final say on the ballot language, which was due by Sept. 7 to appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.