GROWTH: 'Mello Roos' to the rescue

Tired of the tax burden for all these new home developments?

In many states when builders build, rather than have current taxpayers paying for those moving into these developments, homebuyers pay an additional fee for those additional expenses being caused by them! This fee is a “Mello Roos.” Look it up.

A Mello Roos is a special assessment that districts may charge to fund local infrastructure and improvements within a community facilities district, i.e., for police, firefighters, ambulance/paramedics, elementary, middle schools and high schools, utility lines, roads, parks, etc.

Why aren’t Kootenai and other Idaho counties charging a Mello Roos to these new developments?

This fee is nothing new for those moving here, nor the builders who have come north. Mello Roos are used almost everywhere in California, etc.

This Mello Roos would help offset these new residents’ impact on our local communities.

It’s time for these new developments to be paying a Mello Roos for their additional impact on us, not us paying for them.

TOM EVANS

Coeur d’Alene