When outsized homes known as "McMansions" sprout on Blaine County's choicest undeveloped land, they come with special price tags that other homeowners are not prepared to pay.
For one thing, they instantly create higher assessments and higher taxes for older, nearby and smaller homes whose owners find the new financial burden impossible to shoulder in many cases, forcing them to move.
But longer range, McMansions increase the demand on municipal services, for added fire and police protection and more personnel and equipment. Plus they create a demand for more landscape, housekeeping and general maintenance personnel who find affordable housing unavailable because of the epidemic of higher assessments and taxes on housing.
Idaho legislators must provide counties impacted by McMansions with new taxing authority to impose special fees on these large homes, perhaps based on a sliding scale of size, to help pay for affordable housing and added municipal services.
In Colorado, where McMansions have created uproar in several counties, governing bodies are even considering limiting their size.
Outwardly, McMansions suggest that a community enjoys economic prosperity. But in fact, McMansions are leading to economic distress for longtime residents with small homes who can't afford higher assessments, and for service personnel who can't find affordable housing.
This is urgent business for the Legislature's attention. Idaho's uniform tax laws don't meet each county's special needs. Growth counties such as Blaine face unique, unprecedented demands on their resources, and that requires immediate, unique remedies.