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East Side Highway District will seek override levy

From left, Dick Edinger, John Pankratz, Jimmie Dorsey and Leonard Lehtola of the East Side Highway District stand on Mullan Trail Road, scheduled for a sealing project. They announced Tuesday that the district will ask for a vote May 23 in favor of an increase in the levy to fund the highway district. Because of the increase in traffic usage, roads are being damaged at a higher rate. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
By Erica Curless ericac@spokesman.com(509) 459-5439
From left, Dick Edinger, John Pankratz, Jimmie Dorsey and Leonard Lehtola of the East Side Highway District stand on Mullan Trail Road, scheduled for a sealing project. They announced Tuesday that the district will ask for a vote May 23 in favor of an increase in the levy to fund the highway district. Because of the increase in traffic usage, roads are being damaged at a higher rate. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

The East Side Highway District will ask voters in May to approve a $400,000 property tax increase so it can keep up with routine road repairs such as paving.

This is the first time in Idaho’s history that a highway district has floated an override levy: asking voters to increase permanently the amount of property tax collected each year.

The district of about 7,500 registered voters includes the eastern tip of the city of Coeur d’Alene and extends east to Cataldo and south to the Benewah County line.

It encompasses the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene, which is one of the fastest-growing areas in Kootenai County.

Currently, the district is reviewing 32 proposals for new housing developments.

District commissioners say the population boom is causing the 145 miles of gravel roads and 93 miles of paved roads to deteriorate faster than the district can make repairs.

In 2005, there was $26 million in new construction within the highway district boundaries.

Yet commission Chairman Dick Edinger said the current levy is so low that the district received only $16,000 in additional tax revenue for a total budget of $2.3 million.

That’s not nearly enough cash to keep up with the maintenance required from the hundreds of new vehicles added to the roads each year, he said.

“So this new growth isn’t helping us out,” Edinger said.

Edinger and the other commissioners are aware that any property tax increase is a hard sell in the recent climate that some North Idahoans characterize as the beginning of a tax revolt.

Last week voters in the Coeur d’Alene School District struck down a $40 million levy to remodel and rebuild schools.

Edinger is optimistic that people will see the need despite the fact that the highway levy needs approval by 66.6 percent of the voters in the district.

And it’s an area that includes many summer homes owned by part-time residents who can’t vote.

The owner of a property with an assessed $100,000 value currently pays about $47 annually in property taxes to the highway district. The proposed levy would increase that payment by about $12 a year for a total bill of $59.

“If there’s no levy increase, there’s a lot of paved roads that will come apart on us,” Commissioner Jimmie Dorsey said. “That’s what we are really looking at.”

In the Coeur d’Alene area, the proposed increase in taxes would help fund paving, patch and chip seal projects on French Gulch, Yellowstone, Wolf Lodge, Johnson, Silver Beach and Mullan Trail roads.

In the Harrison area, the money would go for repairs and paving on roads including O’Gara, Deer, Lisa and Squaw Bay.

Near Rose Lake and Cataldo, the highway district wants to straighten dangerous sections of Black Lake Road.

The May 23 levy election is the same day as the primary election for county and state positions.