"Figure" It Out

$50 million "jail tax" is defeated - for now. A $50 million school levy has been proposed. $3 to $5 million is the estimated operating cost for the Kroc Center. Food Banks are closing. The Holiday charity drives are cranking up. Okay. Wikipedia tells me the 2000 census statistics are as follows. The population of Kootenai Count is a bout 108,000. There are approximately 41,000 households. The median income per household is $37,754. 10.5% of the population lives beneath the poverty line. 7.3% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Now. It would have been helpful to the voters if the Commissioners and the opposition to the jail tax were working from the same set of assumptions. Beyond that I'm back to wondering about the edifice complex we seem to be nurturing. If the jail is overcrowded, why are parking ticket offenders being incarcerated? Why was ample storage and kitchen capability not factored into the current expansion. A medical facility? An infirmary maybe. We have a perfectly good taxpayer funded "medical facility" just down the road. This isn't a State or Federal penitentiary for gosh sake. On site court rooms? Recently on jury duty my other half noted 3 of the six courtrooms sat empty and it didn't appear to have local judges to utilize them anyway. The judge on his case was from Boise. Will someone either correct me or explain this?

$50 million for a school levy? I should hope the community would get a better return for their dollar. Educating the kids. Along with new and improved schools however, how about higher academic standards and teachers who can deliver them? Idaho doesn't exactly shine in national ratings. Ever wonder why there are so many home schoolers in the area?

I've had my say on the Kroc Center before. Just look at the stats in the first paragraph for a reality check. And don't compare it to the San Diego facility. I've been to San Diego and Coeur d'Alene is no San Diego. Look at the population base and the income base for starters.

It isn't the fine folks at Black Rock who summer here that are going to fund these entities. It's the folks who are highly paid at $12 to $15 per hour, both spouses working , living in the overpriced houses springing up like rabbits on the prairie. Bear in mind when the housing bubble bursts, the prairie runs out and near minimum wage jobs are the norm - poof.