Saundra McDavid

At the budget hearing last night, Mayor Bandy claimed that no one was against raising the levy rate and thus raising the taxes.  Please write to him and the other council members to voice your opposition to increasing the levy rate, which will affect your personal property taxes in 2010.

all of the Eagle city council members and the mayor can be reached by sending an e-mail to eaglecity@cityofeagle.org. Letters must be received by September 8th.

My letter was sent today:
Dear Mayor and City Council;

I urge to you to take Councilmen Semanko and Shoushtarian’s lead in saying “No” to raising the levy rate.  Concerning to me after last night’s budget hearing was the use of semantics to try to classify the levy increase as something other than a tax increase.  If the property assessment goes down, and the levy stays at the same rate as it was in 2009, our property taxes would decrease.  Mayor Bandy’s proposed budget increases the levy rate in 2010 by 20% and thus increases the property taxes that we will have to pay based on the assessed value of our homes.  This eliminates the property tax decrease that we all so desperately need.  And semantics aside, increasing a tax when so many of us are struggling to make ends meet is irresponsible.

Also concerning was the statement from Mayor Bandy, that since four people testified on behalf of keeping some funds in the budget for the Eagle Historical Society, that no one was against raising taxes.   This is a classic logical fallacy that even my first year critical thinking students would have no trouble identifying.  Mayor Bandy did not ask those who testified what they thought of raising the taxes, and it appears he has not asked anyone in the city that he is supposed to be representing.

It was disappointing to see that Mayor Bandy and his appointed councilwoman Jeanne Jackson-Heim appear to be out of touch with the residents of Eagle, implying that we prefer to spend the taxpayers’ money on staffing up in order to have the personnel to attend bureaucratic meetings throughout the Treasure Valley, instead of focusing the budget on services that directly affect the residents like police protection, library services, and animal control.

And alarming to me is Councilwoman Jeanne Jackson-Heim’s statements and justifications for raising the levy rate, her refusal to answer my questions and her desire to rush the budget through without further discussions on reducing the expenses.  She was not receptive to any suggestions on reducing the budget, making comments along the lines of it being “wholly inappropriate” to be discussing cost cutting measures. Councilwoman Jackson-Heim stated that we should raise the levy rate because Eagle’s tax rate is “peanuts” compared to other cities.  What she failed to consider is that Eagle’s property values are higher than the surrounding cities, so that even with a lower levy rate compared to our neighboring cities, we are paying more in property taxes per household.  She claimed repeatedly that she was “okay” with raising taxes, that she “won’t apologize if [she raises] the mill levy” and that she is “perfectly fine with a small increase in taxes.” During a break in the hearing I asked Councilwoman Jackson-Heim by how much she was willing to raise taxes and she refused to answer me.  When I asked her why she would not consider passing a budget that set a more realistic reserve and eliminated the need for raising taxes, she became flustered and left the room.

Creating a budget that has a carryover reserve to protect against the need for debt is a noble goal, however increasing the taxpayers’ burden in order for you to reach your goals is not the way to achieve them.

Sincerely,

Saundra McDavid

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