Deep Dive

DRIGGS — Teton County's three commissioners spent June 23 closing a $130,000 hole in next year's budget, trimming and shifting the few lines they are allowed to touch. Idaho's property tax cap left them no room to raise the money: a 1995 law holds the growth in a county's collections to about three percent a year, even as assessed values double.

The law applies the same formula to every taxing district, then fixes each one at the size it was when the property tax cap took effect. Teton County was small then, and its budget has stayed small ever since, even as the valley around it became one of the fastest-growing places in Idaho. The county has money. Its problem is the ceiling on collecting more, and Idaho law leaves few ways around it.

An independent CPA examination jointly commissioned by Driggs and Victor concluded that Driggs overcharged Victor for years on the cities' shared wastewater loan, used a cost-allocation method the inter-city agreement does not authorize, and could not reconcile two of three quarterly bills the auditor tested. The report, signed by Cooper Norman in Idaho Falls on February 9, 2024, became part of the public record on March 27, 2025, when the Victor City Council voted to end the 26-year partnership and build its own treatment plant.

VICTOR — The wastewater numbers in the Victor-Driggs fight start at $35 million, the figure that has dominated the debate since Mayor Will Frohlich announced plans to build an independent treatment plant. Critics call it reckless. The recall petition cites it. Councilmember Amy Ross, the lone dissenting vote on the judicial confirmation, warned in January that she doesn't think "anyone understands the full financial implications of $35 million in debt."

DRIGGS, Idaho — The Teton Creek Resort settlement approved Monday will cost Teton County $3 million. The county faced a $19 million judgment. The current Board of County Commissioners negotiated it down.

For more than 25 years, the cities of Victor and Driggs have shared the Driggs wastewater treatment system. That partnership is now the subject of a major lawsuit, a mayoral recall effort, and more than $65 million in proposed infrastructure spending between the two cities. This is how it happened, what the lawsuit says, and what comes next.