More fallout from the Idaho Legislature's pigheaded refusal to grant local government any but the narrowest taxing authority dropped into Ketchum recently.
It came with an announcement by city attorney Ben Worst that fees paid by developers to the city in lieu of on-site parking spaces could be illegal.
Idaho's district courts recently decreed that cities or counties may not require developers to build a certain number of affordable deed-restricted homes for every market home built or require landowners to pay fees to cities instead of building affordable housing. The court said the requirements were an unconstitutional tax.
According to Worst, the way Ketchum's ordinance is written could make its in-lieu parking fees similarly illegal as well.
It may be simple to fix with a rewrite of the city's ordinance. But if rewriting can't fix the problem, Ketchum and developers will be deprived of a good planning tool.
The city has long used in-lieu parking fees to purchase land for public parking lots. It has discussed using the fees to build a parking structure in the future.
The fees have benefited developers by providing flexibility for sites where access is limited. The fees work well.
City attorneys in Idaho spend a lot of time playing cat and mouse with state laws to find ways cash-strapped cities can deal with the costs of growth and to keep them from falling solely on existing taxpayers. Ending this game will require sensible laws that allow cities and voters to enact reasonable fees and taxes.
It's time Idaho lawmakers quit sacrificing wise development and fair taxation on the altar of skinflint ideology.
