BOND: Clearing up smoke and mirrors

Lakeland’s school bond failed miserably last Tuesday and sadly Superintendent Becky Myers erroneously blamed, in part, new ballot disclosures. What a cop out. The same night Sugar Salem in eastern Idaho easily passed a school bond with a bigger disclosed cost on the ballot than Lakeland. A few weeks ago a fire district passed a bond in Bannock County. And Rigby passed a big school bond earlier with the same ballot disclosures.

Bond companies and taxing districts sometimes like to use projections of tax base growth (mostly your house being assessed and then taxed more), models, guesses, gimmicks or tricks, to often make a new proposal look cheaper. They use terms like “impact,” a tricky word that focuses on the increase of what you might pay, and not the total of what a proposal will cost you.

To clear up the smoke and mirrors about what taxpayers will pay, a new ballot disclosure law was passed that tells folks what a proposal will cost them, on average and under current market, for each $100K in taxable property they own. A companion bill for levies was unanimously approved in the 2019 legislative session and appears on ballots with levies now. It is a simple, straight forward disclosure using the best available facts.

Market conditions can go up or down (think 2008-2010), so stating what any tax will be using future projections is just guessing. Therefore the new ballot disclosures provide much needed and accurate information. Taxpayers deserve this disclosure.

BRIAN STUTZMAN

Idaho Falls