IMPACT FEES: Put it on a ballot

The proposed community impact fees that Sheriff Robert Norris is requesting is a misguided attempt by the sheriff to raise money for his department by asking new residents to pay for it, residents that will likely never use the services of the Sheriff’s Office.

Most people moving here are retirees. Their presence will have little impact upon our county jail. Most of the new residents will buy homes in cities within the county. Those cities have their own police departments. So, when these retirees need law enforcement services they will call their own police departments, not the sheriff. It makes no sense to require these retirees to pay to fund the Sheriff’s Office as most will have limited to no interaction with that agency while they live here.

Impact fees assessed upon developers and builders will be passed along to homebuyers or those renting new apartments making housing even more out of reach for North Idahoans. It’s ironic that at the same time that Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White asks his city council for more money to make it easier to hire new officers that hesitate to move here due to the high cost of housing, the Sheriff seeks to increase those same costs.

The sheriff may truly need more funding to operate his department. But, perhaps a more common sense approach would involve our commissioners placing a ballot initiative before the people asking if they would support a property tax increase to fund the sheriff’s office.

Let the voters decide.

JIM BURKHARDT

Post Falls