[Vision2020] city tazes

[Bill Strand]

Donovan,

The issue of high property taxes will remain as long as the city of
Moscow remains dependent upon entities such as the University of Idaho
and Gritman that pay no property taxes. Think about the land that has
come off the tax rolls in the last few years (such as Cavanaugh's
Landing). This means that a larger percentage of property taxes will be
placed on homeowners. I was once told that Latah County has one of the
highest proportion of taxes coming from the homeowners in all of Idaho.

The answer isn't to tax the students and/or visitors to Moscow - the
answer is to develop the business community in this town. These entities
require the minimum amount of increased services (fire, hospital, water,
garbage, etc...) and thus have the highest return on investment for
their taxes.

However, this takes a long term commitment in a wide range of areas.

Bill Strand