From the Panhandle with Cate Huisman

A Note from the Frog/Pond Interface

By Cate Huisman, 11-09-09

	The View from Hope

Individuals may differ on whether they prefer a metaphorical existence as relatively small creatures in large, imposing bodies of water (like Seattle, for example), or massively important animals in puddles whose global significance is less evident (except to them, perhaps). In the latter, one person’s action can make a substantial difference, as it did last week in Hope, Idaho (pop. 86).

Voting numbers here are on a whole different scale than those that pop up on John King’s magic map on CNN, and the tax override levy in Hope was a vote that King did not cover. But it was an important issue for residents of this lakeside burg, whose municipal coffers have long depended on receipts from logging 120 acres of timberland that it owns. With rising costs in the town and falling fortunes in the timber market, an alternative source of revenue had become essential.

Hence the levy, which asked citizens to approve an increase in the amount of money that the city could raise through property taxes, from $25,000 to $45,000. The difference was hardly enough to pay the benefits on the salary of some big-pond municipal employees, but at the same time, it was nearly doubling the allowed amount.

So you’d expect the issue to be controversial, and the levy, which required 60% approval, passed by a single vote: 28 votes in favor and 18 against gave it a 60.87% majority.

In the future it will cost everyone a little more to live in Hope. But each year, when they’re sending that check off to city hall, they can remember that their vote does make a difference.

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