Letters to the editor: salmon and steelhead, property taxes, mandates, Nunes and GOP
Salmon and steelhead
I am a junior at Boise High and part of the Youth Salmon Protectors. I care about wild salmon and steelhead because the rivers that bring abundance to my home state depend on them. The outdoors are what make Idaho great. I‘ve grown up swimming, rafting, and fishing, and I can’t imagine generations after me not being able to do the same. Without the salmon and steelhead, 137 other animal species are doomed. Failing to take action now to save our wild rivers means failing today’s youth and generations of Idahoans to come. The science is clear: the four Lower Snake River dams are responsible for the decline of our keystone fish. Right now we have what may be the last opportunity to save these animals, and we must take it. Not only does Rep. Mike Simpson‘s plan ensure protection of Idaho’s keystone species but it also ensures tribal justice, ecotourism, cleaner renewable energy, and so much more. I urge readers to call Sen. Mike Crapo and ask him to help secure funding for the Columbia Basin Initiative.
Trinity Compton, Garden City
Property taxes
After 22 years as president of the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho (retired), this is my attempt to simplify how taxing district budgets (Step 1) impact your property taxes (Step 2).
Step 1, Taxing Districts: Schools (primarily state-funded) remain significant followed by counties, cities and many others. The districts follow a legal process to set a tax levy rate (C). Each district has a total amount of taxable property value (A), some include yours. They complete a statutory allowed budget (B). The property tax budget amount (B) divided by the district’s assessed taxable value (A) equals their tax levy rate (C). Thus, B/A=C.
Step 2, Property Taxpayer: The sum of your taxing district levy rates results in your total rate (C). Your total rate times your taxable property value (A) results in your property tax (B). Thus, C x A=B. Example: the total of a home’s 2021 taxing district levies (C) was .010929350 (largest being Boise City, Boise School District and Ada County). The small home’s taxable value (A) was $291,000. The product of C times A was the property tax (B), $3,180.48.
I hope this simplifies the process. Most complexity is in Step 1 and its applicable laws/rules.
Randy Nelson, Boise
Vaccine mandates
Oh my good booster shot heavens. Gov. Brad Little is now doing everything he possibly can to prevent, stop, block, and destroy a vaccine mandate for large companies in Idaho. “Vote for me” is his motive. The facts, statistics, and science are in and weighed in the balance. Damn them. It is full speed ahead into the Republican Party’s nosedive into ignorance, lies, and willful denial. At the end of the day, Gov. Little, how do you face yourself in the mirror?
Jeanie Lynn, Boise
Nunes pitiful
Jonathan Bernstein’s Dec. 16 op-ed regarding Republican Congressman Devin Nunes’ retirement to work for Trump does say a lot about Congress — but not what Republicans want to hear.
As The Guardian has reported, Nunes has been “Trump’s ultimate yes man”, a lickspittle who, according to The Guardian, “went out of his way ... to clear Trump of accusations of collusion with Russia”.
Nunes personified how low the Republican Party has sunk. The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has become nothing but an echo chamber for the lies emanating from right-wing media. Whether uninterested in — or incapable of — governing, Republicans spend their time being divisive (when they aren’t giving the rich more tax cuts). Topics like abortion and critical race theory are just two of the many distractions from the fact that Republicans can’t govern.
Most worrisome is how Russia has manipulated and is manipulating the conservative movement, from the far-right conspiracy QAnon to the election of radical conservatives. How ironic that the movement that fought against Communism has now been taken over by it.
Gary L. Bennett, Boise
GOP Jokers
Republican House members Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Greene and Paul Gosar don’t deserve to be taken seriously as legislators. They are performers or entertainers taking their cue from the former president. Their goal is to incite and divide, not to function as leaders working to make the country better. Those who elected them are pawns serving the worst instincts of Republican leaders
Charles B. McConnell, Boise