Idaho Shooter, Where you reside, I can see your point. But Treasure Valley is the highest population density in Idaho, and one of the most productive agriculture areas in the west. The property tax base is huge. Clearwater County...Benewah County, hell, all your rural mountain counties probably have a much different view with low populations and high Fed presence. You got great schools, would you deny the kids in the rural mountain counties less of a shot at education because they have a miniscule tax base compared with your area? In Calif, PILT...by law, is 50% to schools and 50% to roads. I think in Idaho it goes to a broader spectrum...law enforcement, Search and Rescue, Fire etc...but still, it goes to rural counties where it is needed.
You are correct about tax base across much of the Treasure Valley. And the Valley is much worse off for it.
I well remember when our County Sheriff's dept was the Sheriff and two deputies, when our school district was comprised of 300 students 1-12 grade, when there were five school buses for the entire district, when the county road district had a few six wheel dump trucks for plowing snow and building roads vs a parking lot full of rigs bigger and better than the State highway dept.
Yes, we had to plow our own way out the first couple of miles of county road, you had to occasionally shovel your way through a snow drift.
And it was a hell of a lot bettet place to live.
The only thing growth does for a community is make land speculators and developers wealthy. And it makes the %age skimmed by local government a lot bigger.
As stated before, local governments need to learn to balance their budgets and live within their means.
