TAXES: Hold government to private biz standards

Kootenai County, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls are all reaching for the same tool at the same time: your wallet.

The county wants to publish a $147 million budget for 2027, up from $144 million, carrying the maximum 3% property tax hike, roughly $3 million more. Coeur d’Alene is proposing yet another increase to close a $3.1 million deficit, the fourth consecutive year of property tax hikes. Post Falls just joined in, eyeing a 3% bump worth $1.6 million, partly to fund a police expansion projected as high as $14 million (wasteful).

Every year it’s the same story, the same justification: rising costs, growth, and the same claim that there’s simply “no choice.” Yet the deficits never close and the hikes never end. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. This is the textbook case.

I own businesses here. When my revenue falls short, I don’t get to walk next door and force my neighbor to hand over a percentage of their sales to cover my inefficiency. I cut. I prioritize. I balance the budget, because I have to. Government should be held to the same standard, not handed an automatic raise every year that solves nothing.

These budgets aren’t final. Post Falls holds its hearing August 18; the county, August 26. Show up. Ask why another year of pain never buys a permanent fix.

This isn’t a revenue problem we can tax our way out of, it’s a government problem.

RANDALL HILDEBRAND
Post Falls