State Board of Education President says community college tax rate won’t exceed $13.37

The president of the Idaho State Board of Education says a community college would not cost taxpayers more than $13.37 per year per $100,000 of property. If the vote for the Eastern Idaho Community College passes, it’s the state board that appoints five trustees from Bonneville County for the taxing district that sets the amount.

Emma Atchley told Local News 8 they won’t appoint trustees that would increase that amount.

” We would vet them very carefully and make sure they are in support of the ideas and the assumptions made by the people who have done the due diligence on the amount of money that was needed locally for the college,” Atchley said.

Mark Fuller, Chairman of the Bonneville County Republican Party had this response.

” Ms. Atchley is an appointed bureaucrat asserting what other unelected bureaucrats will do after they are appointed. Ms. Atchley has no authority to bind the taxing district trustees, even if they express the desire to keep the tax at an impossibly low level, in order to get appointed. Once the trustees are appointed by the state board of education, they will not be accountable to Bonneville County voters for a full year and Ms. Atchley cannot be trusted to keep the tax at a level which has been impossible for all other taxing districts. The Bonneville County Republican Party remains committed to protecting the voters from this unnecessary taxing district and its $7.5 million tax.”