LETTER: Flunks fact check

I could not help but respond after reading Ms. Ann Seddon’s letter of April 7.

To begin with, I have to wonder if Ms. Seddon bothered to communicate with a current county commissioner, or even with our finance director, regarding the question of fund balance, or as Ms. Seddon refers to it, “county fund.”

Ms. Seddon needs to do the research to get her facts straight and perhaps rely less on county political candidates. The county’s current fund balance (reserve) is sitting at $18M and two months operating expenses, lower than a few years ago due to the jail expansion of $11.5M (which former County Commissioners Mar Eberlein, Bob Bingham and Chris Fillios, voted to approve). The project came in on time and $500K under budget.

Kootenai County maintains a healthy fund balance. Check out the Kootenai County YouTube of March 26, where the assignment of fund balance allocation was discussed, and where Finance Director Dena Darrow complimented the current BOCC for building up the fund balance while meeting the other needs of our county.

As to Ms. Seddon’s concern about property taxes, she might access the county website: www.kcgov.us/performanceindicators. Kootenai County is the lowest taxing of the five largest counties in Idaho, while tied with Ada as the fastest growing.

TAMMIE PEACOCK

Hayden