GROWTH: When it outpaces revenue

When Coeur d’Alene faces a budget deficit, it is easy to blame City Hall. But residents should understand that our City Council does not control all the rules governing how growth pays for public services.

Idaho law generally limits annual increases in the property-tax-supported portion of a city budget to 3%, with specified allowances for new construction, annexation and voter-approved increases. State law also limits how much additional budget authority can come from growth.

Meanwhile, Coeur d’Alene continues to grow.

Coeur Terre illustrates the challenge. Hundreds of acres of previously undeveloped land were annexed for a project ultimately expected to contain thousands of residential units and take decades to build.

Annexation does not instantly create thousands of tax-paying homes. Houses and their taxable value arrive gradually, while demands for planning, inspections, police, fire protection, streets and traffic management can arrive much sooner.

Coeur d’Alene’s own Finance Director has warned that growth was not generating substantial new revenue and that new-growth revenue might not keep pace with ongoing costs.

This isn’t an argument against growth, nor does it excuse poor spending decisions.

It is an argument for understanding who controls what.

City Hall should be accountable for the decisions it controls. But Idaho legislators should also explain whether the laws they have enacted give rapidly growing cities the financial tools necessary to serve that growth.

Growth should help pay for growth.

If it isn’t, taxpayers deserve to know why

TOM SANNER

Coeur d’Alene