County
Burning Issues And Libraries Maxed Out
January 3, 2012 
Our GUARDIAN staff tax expert has alerted us to possible funding issues in 2012 for some fire districts and libraries.
These taxing districts are limited in their legal ability to levy taxes and as property values declined, they have almost uniformly “gone to the max.” City and county governments can raise budgets up to 3% and levy accordingly to pay for their decisions. The following have set limits.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
© 2012 Boise Guardian. 
Jan 3, 2012, 5:54 pm
Who sets the upper limit and how long do you think it will take to change that limit?
EDITOR NOTE–Thanks for the question. The rates are established by the legislature and of course can be changed by the legislature. There are actually about 20 state codes that apply. Everything from airports and ambulance districts to Water and sewer districts.
Jan 3, 2012, 8:36 pm
I was hoping it wouldn’t be the city/county. Any more on nampa’s storm water tax.. I mean fee?
EDITOR NOTE–two lawsuits are pending. One is potentially a class action with tens of thousands of plaintiffs.
Jan 3, 2012, 10:31 pm
Seems to me, that we need fire departments less and less these days. What do the statistics show after subtracting out all the roaring around the big red trucks do while racing the Ada Medics to the seen of a non-fire event.
Jan 4, 2012, 8:14 am
Oh well.. that’s what you get when you peg a tax to a variable–a variable that isn’t at all related to the services received for the tax.
Jan 5, 2012, 7:38 am
Hey Zippo, Reducing the number of firemen would be tough to do. I mean where else could we find people that would want to earn 60,000 per year for working only 10 days a month and get better retirement than even Persi provides?
Jan 5, 2012, 12:03 pm
Loser… 10 days is 240 hours.. most people are at work 20 days out of a 28 day month 20 days times 8 hours a day 160 hours a month… No Im not a fireman just sayin
EDITOR NOTE–Now you will get a lesson in firemen working 24 hr shifts, getting paid to sleep, etc. The 8 hr day doesn’t even work for coppers who work 10 hr days, 4 days a week. The debate is old, so PLEASE all you coppers and firefighters, don’t get started on this one!
Jan 5, 2012, 2:53 pm
I didnt say they WORKED I said they were AT WORK.. If either got paid peice work (for what they actually do) neither would make much money.
Jan 7, 2012, 2:58 pm
Dear Rick. Out of the 24 hours, or I guess in Boise’s case now 48 hours, they only are required to “work” 8 (out of each 24) and are on call for the other. Some nights they sleep straight through, others they have medical calls. 15% of the time the calls are for Fires which I guess allows them to still be called “firemen” and not basic life support medical people.
Now, in the station they can work on their cars, run power equipment to build cabinets and furniture, wash and wax their personal cars and of course, sit in recliners and watch tv. Some “firemen” have even been known to run businesses out of the stations. Certainly many used to sell cars and boats and trailers from the front parking lots.
During that 8 hour “work” day, they can use the fire truck to go to the grocery stores to buy food to cook in the firehouse, because we all know it’s impossible for them to bring food from home that they’ve purchased on their day(s) off. They are not required to train on weekends, even though those weekends may be the only days they actually “work” during the week.
But I think Loser E is absolutely right. It would be so hard to find people to do this “work”. I mean they only get like 20 apps for each job opening or some ridiculously low number like that. It’s a shame no
one wants to do the “work”.
Jan 8, 2012, 12:19 am
My last post on this story…. I know youll all say yippee..
It’s amazing how if someone posts something that you idiots dont like you all crawl out of you meth pipe and show just how stupid you are. Good by morons…