East Bonner Library trustees approve boundary line adjustment with West Bonner

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The West Bonner County Library District got its wish for a boundary expansion, following the vote at an Aug. 20 joint meeting of its board and trustees from the East Bonner County Library District.

Members of the EBCL Board voted unanimously to approve the request for redrawing the district boundaries, which addresses a long-simmering conversation about where the tax burden should fall between the two library systems.

“I’m asking you to give me the people of Priest River that I serve everyday,” WBCL Director Meagan Mize said at the Aug. 20 meeting, which took place at the Priest River Library.

EBCL Board Chair Amy Flint agreed with the request, calling it “an idea whose time has come.”

And it has been coming for a long time. The issue stems from how the boundaries were initially set about 50 years ago and the changes that have occurred since on both sides of the county.

Back then, West Bonner didn’t have its own library or school district, so library taxes were levied on the same area as the Pend Oreille Hospital District — which covers about two thirds of the county from just outside Priest River city limits to the Montana border.  

The boundary lines between West Bonner Library District (brown) and East Bonner Library District (blue). Courtesy image.

In the intervening years, West Bonner established its own library district bounded by the hospital district to the east and Washington border to the west. Then, in 1999-2000, the Bonner County School District split, creating the West Bonner County and Lake Pend Oreille school districts.

That created an overlap, where residents in the West Bonner County School District were paying taxes to support the East Bonner County Library District, but most often using the Priest River Library.

The vote on Aug. 20 affirmed the request from West Bonner that the boundary between the two library districts be redrawn to align with the school district, therefore eliminating the overlap.

“I think it’s just organically time,” Mize said, referring to the steady increase in population in the county coupled with internal migration as residents priced out of Sandpoint have moved west to Priest River and the Blanchard area.

With the realignment, 3,166 parcels would shift their library tax dollars from East to West Bonner, and would result in an estimated $224,000 in revenue for the latter district.

“I need the money to staff this library,” Mize said. “I can’t provide any more hours to the community, I can’t provide any more staff because I don’t have the funds to do it.”

Though she ultimately voted in favor, EBCL Trustee Jeanine Asche expressed the greatest reservations about redrawing the district lines. While she understood West Bonner’s need for more funding, Asche said, “My allegiance lies to the people in my district.”

“I need to make sure that this is not going to negatively impact the people that voted me in,” she added.

The current levy rates for East and West Bonner are similar, at .000239892% and .000234518%, respectively.

EBCL Director Vanessa Velez told the Reader in an email in June that the state allows the district to levy at the same amount regardless of the boundary lines, but because the tax would fall on fewer property owners, it would increase their overall payment — though “very slightly.”

Based on 2023 figures, the Idaho State Tax Commission estimated that levying the same amount on the reduced EBCL area would amount to an additional $2.28 per $100,000 in taxable value.

Alternatively, East Bonner could reduce its levy rate in order to maintain the current tax burden on property owners. However, that would mean less overall revenue for the district.

Regardless, taxpayers won’t see any change on their bills related to the boundary realignment until the next fiscal year.

WBCL Board Chair Cindy Endahl suggested that East Bonner might not have to worry too much about declining revenue in any case, citing an increase of $333 million in new construction on the east side of the county, compared to $35 million on the west side.

“I’m thinking that’s going to have a pretty big impact on increasing your tax base,” she said. “[W]e’re going to have a little bump and I think you folks are going to have a really big bump.”

According to a presentation before the EBCL Board in June, Mize said West Bonner’s total 2023-’24 tax income was $451,266. In comparison, the FY’24 budget for East Bonner contains just more than $3 million in levy income for a total budget of $3.9 million — and its foregone tax revenue last year came to about $12,500 less than West Bonner’s total annual budget.

“I don’t think that $200,000 is going to impact you much, as the richest library in the state,” Mize said on Aug. 20, later adding, “I didn’t want to come to you guys with a heavy hand … I just wanted to have a mutual agreement because I think it’s a reasonable request.”

A number of West Bonner County residents attended the meeting, and all who spoke testified on the importance of the library to their community and what the additional tax revenue could mean.

“I pay a lot of property taxes and library taxes, and I’m wondering why my tax dollars are not coming to Priest River, where I live eight minutes away [from the library] and I do not want to drive 45 minutes away to go to the library,” said one resident.

Katie Crill, who served 24 years as director of the Priest River Library, said the library had been “operating on a shoestring” since its founding. Meanwhile, “We’re suffering a big problem: It’s called ‘build it, they will come.’ We built it, they came and now we need to keep up.”

Elizabeth Glazier, who ran for a trustee seat in the most recent West Bonner School District election, spoke with emotion about the importance of having an adequately funded library in a part of the county that lacks many of the opportunities and amenities of the more populous and wealthy east side.

“Our children deserve to be treated the same as the kids in Sandpoint,” she said.

EBCL trustees had considered holding a referendum on the boundary line readjustment, but decided otherwise to avoid politicizing what they ultimately agreed was a decision that should have been made years ago.

“It seems to be pretty much a non-issue for East Bonner County people who are not really going to be impacted by the change,” said Flint.

With the unanimous vote of approval from the EBCL Board, meeting attendees burst into applause, with some crying and hugging in celebration.

“We are so grateful to you,” Endahl said.

In an email to the Reader on Aug. 20, Mize wrote, “I’m very happy about the outcome of today’s meeting. I’m still overwhelmed and it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. This is HUGE for our community and I cannot express my gratitude enough to the Board of East Bonner making the decision to correct the boundary lines.

“I look forward to further collaboration and cooperation with East Bonner Library,” she added. “We both work so hard to provide the best for the patrons of Bonner County as a whole.”