SCHOOL LEVIES: Impact fee law needed

Missed opportunity. In the April 26 issue Dr. Shon Hocker Opinion piece on why voting “Yes’ for the Coeur d’Alene school’s levy might be a good idea. What he didn’t do is reach out to the public to ask them to support a revision to the state law so each county or city could, if it wished, establish a “School Facility Impact fee” on new construction. As it stands now, the state prohibits such a fee for schools yet allows it for sewer, water, police, fire, parks, trails, etc. Aren’t schools just as important? Every new building, especially residential units, contributes to the need for additional school facilities but those new residents ‘inherit’ the past payments from existing/previous residents to construct those facilities. Yes, new residents do also ‘inherit’ the obligation of existing bond payments when they move in but no obligation for past expenses incurred.

Tell your elected officials at the state level to pass a law allowing such an impact fee on new construction. It should be used only for new construction or to add instructional facilities to existing schools to increase capacity where land exists but buildings do not.

HOWARD BURNS

Post Falls