This week, the local news had many articles about property tax reform proposals. The legislative session just ended and the results were largely unexciting. The politicians in Northern Idaho threw out some ideas, and the folks in Southern Idaho shot ’em down.
Both Washington and Idaho suffer from the same “big state” problem. The issues that affect one part of the state are irrelevant in another part. So, if decisions are made in Olympia, the folks in Spokane often are left wondering what happened. In much the same way, what happens in North Idaho has little impact on the folks in Boise. I mean, let’s face it, we’re not even in the same time zone. In this case, our skyrocketing property taxes don’t much matter to the folks down south.
Idaho is a really long state. Almost everyone I talk to who lives out of state asks me what I think about Boise, as if it’s around the corner. It’s not; it’s 450 miles away. It’s like asking someone from Virginia what the weather is like in Florida. In fact, I’ve never even been to Boise. I’ve been near it when we initially drove up here, but that’s as close as I ever got to the “big city down south.”
So to all those folks who ask me, yes, the weather in Boise might be nice, but I couldn’t really say for sure. I live in Northern Idaho. That’s near Canada. And we are in the Pacific, not the Mountain time zone like most people expect. So please keep that in mind if you call in the morning hours!