TAX: Tourists, not residents, should pay

Thanks to Richard Fortman for his My Turn guest opinion in the July 30 paper. All taxpayers in Coeur d’Alene should read it. In the 53 years I have been blessed to live in this community, I have watched as this city has developed into a tourism destination, mostly benefiting downtown businesses and the hotel industries, at a major expense to the local property owners through taxation.

Every weekend during the summer, our city is taken over by mostly non-residents and many out-of-town people during the week as well. For the most part, our taxpaying residents avoid the downtown area, due to the focus on non-residents. 

It is past time the “invaders” to our city pay more to offset the expenses our taxpayers incur. Our legislators have failed to classify our city as a “qualifying resort city” due to the population, to tax non-residents in order to offset our local city and county taxes. Just last week in the Press, articles stated both the city and county need to raise property taxes again to offset the budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.

It is time to increase parking fees (locals could obtain permits), increase alcohol taxes, increase hotel and VRBO taxes and any other taxes that would benefit the locals at the expense of the out-of-towners.

It is past time to demand our local representatives Doug Okuniewicz, Vito Barbieri, Jordan Redman and Ben Toews sponsor legislation to benefit Coeur d’Alene.

BRIAN JORGENSEN
Coeur d’Alene