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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Nampa Rep. Robert Schaefer on Urban Renewal


Representative Schaefer writes a summary of his activity and views of the legislative session each week. This week a terrible bill may make its way out of committee and may actually get passed. Here are Rep. Schaefer's comments on the legislation:

" Urban renewal: H567 affects many changes in existing law. Since the purview is quite extensive, it begs the question that perhaps we should be inquiring unto the premise behind “tax increment financing,” the improper funding method of urban renewal.

Why in 1965 did the Legislature scheme to “starve” other legitimate taxing entities so a non-taxing entity could be put in place to do things that normally would have required a vote of the taxpayers? If those legitimate taxing entities were receiving too much money from taxpayers, they should have been cut back, and the urban renewal voted on by the people who supply the money.

Now would be an appropriate time to restore propriety to the taxpayers and correct this. Idaho is among the highest-taxed states, and that is because of chicanery such as this, where citizens are taxed without having an opportunity to say yes or no.

A citizen vote on debt is a concept of government more than 100 years old, but denied in Idaho for 45 years and counting. Even the legitimate taxing entities have been relieved of the need to participate in the process because their funding is taken away without due process.

The urban renewal law actually increases taxes on every citizen in the county and disallows them to vote. This was never intended to be part of the American way."

2 comments:

  1. Rep. Schaefer is one of the few people in the legislature who understands how urban renewal is just another way to fleece taxpayers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rep. Schaefer is on the ball when it comes to knowing how UR affects all taxpayers in surrounding taxing districts...GOOD JOB Bob!

    ReplyDelete

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