David Frazier: Proposed amendment asks Idaho voters to vote away their right to vote | Reader's Opinion | Idaho Statesman
In response to Lewiston Tribune editorial, which ran in Monday's Statesman:
The issue before voters Nov. 2 on three proposed constitutional amendments is not the two-thirds super-majority needed to approve long-term debt.
The issue is an attempt by cities to abolish the constitutional rights of citizens to approve - or deny - debt by airports, public hospitals, and publicly owned utilities - regardless of the source of revenues for repayment.
Voters are being asked to go to the polls and vote to eliminate their right to vote on these specific issues.
Because they don't like the "power of the purse" deliberately provided to Idaho citizens by the founding fathers, proponents seek to simply remove the voice of the people from the equation. It was politicians, not citizens who pushed for passage in the 2010 Legislature.
The big issue will be HJR5 and its effect on airports. The measure is written so broadly that it allows cities to incur debt for any structure or project "deemed in the public purpose" at any cost as long as property taxes are not used for repayment.
The danger in this amendment is twofold:
• Public assets financed with a vote of a city council or county commission will require the structure itself to serve as security on the loan, since there is no "full faith and credit" of the taxpayers. We could see parking garages, airport terminals and hangars foreclosed upon and repossessed by lenders.
• Most hangars, garages, and freight-sorting facilities at Idaho airports are privately financed and owned. They are also taxed and provide revenues for schools, cities and counties, and tax to the state if they are income property. If financed and built by the airport authority, those buildings would all be tax-exempt public property.
With regard to the hospitals and HJR4, there is no reason for a hospital to retain tax-levy authority if it is not funded with public money. Bannock County sold its public hospital following the Frazier decision and now has a state-of-the art medical facility that pays the county $1.6 million in taxes.
Grangeville went to the voters for permission to expand the county hospital and received overwhelming community support. Meanwhile Kootenai Medical Center is so big it spends public fees building commercial office space, competing with the private sector. That institution would be able to go without public oversight of its finances if the amendment passed. The facility is owned by the people, and they have the right to determine its financial direction on projects so "profound" as to require debt.
It is a dangerous move to alter the constitution to conform to the current political winds. Politicians and politics change with time. The constitution should be our guiding force and a constant. It has served us well since statehood.
Photographer and blogger David Frazier sued to stop the Boise Airport from selling bonds for an airport garage without a public vote. In 2006, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in Frazier's behalf.
Comments
Post a Comment