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Thursday, February 21, 2013

More "Magic" Via Urban Renewal in Nampa



This past Tuesday evening Nampa City Council met to discuss the possibility of making the old Mercy Hospital building in Nampa into yet another Urban Renewal District.  All is is more magic, along with smoke and mirrors to pour over $8 million taxpayer dollars that will transform the old dilapidated structure into 50 senior citizen living units.  The final assessed value was estimated to come in at around $2.5 million once the project is completed.

Councilman Bob Henry suggested in the discussion on the project the possibility of putting the measure up for a vote when the city runs the issue of adding two more city council slots.  Mayor Tom Dale is reported to have suggested that this is far to complicated to put up for a vote of the good people of Nampa.  They simply would not understand the complexity of this project.

The real issue here is why would the leaders of Nampa even consider funding or even encouraging a project so upside down as this one.  All of the smoke and mirrors of the funding elements and inflow of taxpayer dollars does not make financial sense.  This money has to be paid back.  Additionally,  the project will end up with 50 living units that will cost about $160,000.00 each when the project is completed. 

The "magic" of this project is pure PORK FUNDING and more property taxes shifted onto Nampa and all county property taxpayers.  The foregone and forgiven property taxes creates a tax shift that has to be made up by all county taxpayers.  The "magic" is the way 70% of taxpayer dollars disappear.

Is it any wonder property tax levy rates are overall 40% higher in Canyon County than in Ada County?

 Here's a link to the Idaho Press Tribune article in todays edition: 

33 comments:

  1. While I didn't attend the Nampa City Council meeting I fully expect all the members of that august body to fall in line with the wishes of Mayor Tom. How could anyone pass up the opportunity to revive this old dump ... oh forgive me... historical structure to its former glory. What a depressing looking structure in the first place. (Gulag archetecture is what comes to my mind.)

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  2. I did attend the council meeting Tuesdayy night. It was quite clear that Mr. Dale didn't feel that the voters should be trusted to vote on this matter. Apparently the only function we can be trust with is to pay the taxes. We will soon be at least $80,000,000 let me repeat that $80,000,000 in debt in Nampa $17,000,000 for the sewer plant upgrade $31,500,000 for the police station and approximately 31,000,000 for the library. . Without 1 dollar being approved by the voters. I recently ran a comparison of the property taxes on 2, 2 bedroom 2 bath 2 car houses. One in Nampa and 1 in Meridian. the properties are almost identical.The 1 in Nampa has an assessed value of $60,400 its property tax is $1408.30. The one in Meridian has an assessed value of $90,700 its property tax is 1361.96. The property in Meridian has a assessed value that Is 50% higher but the Property tax is higher the the Nampa property.

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  3. Another interesting development. I have been tryng to get a total cost for the library project from the NDC since early January. I spoke with Beth Ineck today 2-21-2013 and they still don't have or won't divulge the cost. We are proceeding with a multimillion dollar project without knowing the cost of construction or the cost of the interest on the bonds. I guess we are just supposed to trust them.

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  4. Urban renewal needs to buy this property and demolish this old eyesore, remediate the land to the point it would be attractive to a developer and sell it on par with virgin dirt outside the city limits. This would be a clean deal and the city would end up with a new structure free of subsidies and could be a new taxable structure in Nampa. The great give-away has to stop somewhere.

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  5. I wonder if the Nampa City Council members read the paper. One of the commentors in the paper called the people who support this kind of activity "taker's" and contributors to our problems with our national debt problems. This project has a bad smell and it is high time for ending the "taker" mentality. We's broke and acting like spoiled children is taking even more is not helpful to our nation.

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  6. By law urban renual money doesen't need approval by anyone whom it was taken from.We still don't know the total dollars of tax payer money that went into the oregon based college in Caldwell. It is my opinion that they can do everything wright and be leagely corect and be morally wrong.The bad news is or elected like this way of getting money. They forget the day after the election that this is what we elected them to put a stop to.I'm sorry it is just wrong,but legal

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  7. There are some excellent points made in the previous comments. I can only hope that Bob Henry will make a difference in stopping Tom Dales' rampant spending spree of the taxpayers' money. He must be replaced by almost any other candidate that runs in the next mayoral election.

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    1. With the only possible exception being if a transvestite runs for mayor.

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    2. That's something we could go either way on

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  8. I find it remarkable that all of a sudden this old building has become an urgent "PUBLIC SAFET HAZARD" despite sitting vacant for over a decade.
    If the developer of this site wants to do something then the City/URA of Nampa needs to acquire the site, tear down that old eyesore and give it to this developer with the condition he build something that conforms to current building and safety codes.

    I am actaully fed up spending tax dollars for housing for people who did not plan for their old age.

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  9. The hubris of Team Tom and his minions is reaching a boiling point. I see a lot of would of's, should of's and could of's here. It would have been better to have had a library already built where the new police station is, the property where the old police station was could have been improved for the new police station, and work on the sewer should have started years ago. As far as the old Mercy building goes, just raze it and start over again. Team Tom's decision points is just poor judgment along with all the deception, lies, and misleading information that goes along with it. The restaurant grapevine is alive and well.

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  10. This is a corporation ( so-called non-profit) with more arms than an octopus. So far in Idaho there are at least 4 seperate buisness entity's --Community Development Inc, Rockwell Court Associates,LLC, Rockwell Court Limited, and Memphis Development, all with C. Fred Conforth as a principle. It has subsidiaries in 13 states so I suspect we are dealing with a buisness entity which have discovered they can be a vacuum cleaner for State and Federal funds for low cost housing. I wonder what the salarys are in these "non-profits"

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  11. I wonder if a lawsuit over this would hold up financing on library square--Urban Renewal board haven't signed any contracts with the financeers yet. Always a red flag to a banker with lawsuits going on.
    Nampa Hole maybe?

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  12. A credit check or report on the mayor and each council member would be interesting to see if these people handle their personal finances any better than than those of the public trust they have been elected to.

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  13. It just rubs me the wrong way when Tom Dale says the financials on this project are beyond the ability of the public to understand. Hey Tom, give the public some credit for understanding you don't want any votes on this nor do you understand that turning $8.5MM into a project worth $2.5MM when finished is a bad deal for taxpayers regardless of where the money comes from.

    Condemnation of the building and clearing it for a brand new structure makes the most sense. Seismic standards alone are enough to kill this project.

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    1. Team Tom's comment about the people being to dumb to understand is really extreme, and radical. It is like saying that they are the sovereign and that the people are the servants. No, this is not the Kingdom of Nampa.

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  14. I was born in this building 65+ years ago, Doc Saltzer in charge according to my birth certificate. So lets bronze it or coat it in silver so no one shall fergit. Really that is pathetic logic for the preservation of this sort of thing. I think my Dog looms rather large in this fight but it says let it go. A lot of better candidates for saving have met the swinging ball.

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  15. I was also born tin the old Mercy Hospital , perhaps we should put up a bronze plaque to commemorate the occasion. We simply cannot afford to continue spending money on these projects that consume huge ammounts of tax money and don't even break even

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  16. Somehow they can renovate old buildings in Boise without using the urban renewal fiasco. How come it can't be done in Nampa? Here is a story in todays' Statesman. http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/02/25/2466760/boises-owyhee-plaza-hotel-to-be.html

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    1. Sorry Brian, but nearly all of downtown Boise is in a URA and they are trying to add yet another district in the 30th street area. Not a dime of property tax increases got for streets, cops , fire, schools etc.

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  17. Sorry Paul, no where in the story is any mention that ura is involved in any way.

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    1. Hi Brian, my curiosity was piqued over the financials and I sent an email to Audrey Dutton who wrote the statesman article:

      "They'll seek fed tax credits for historic building rehab (thru National Park Service program) and some CCDC support for things unrelated to the building, like streetscape. It seems like fairly conventional market-rate housing -- not tax-exempt and eligible for bond financing like a hospital would be."



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    2. Therefore would you say my earlier statement was correct?

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    3. Hi Brian, I will let you draw your own conclusion; CCDC is the Boise Urban Renwewal Agency and will contribute money, Historic Preservation is more public tax dollars that will flow to this project. To be sure there will be a lot of cash from the owner's as well.

      Paul

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  18. What kind of dummy would even consider spending $8,000,000.00 for a project that's worth $2,500,00.00 when you are done?

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  19. A dummy who isn't spending his own money.

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  20. There is nothing to prevent the occupancy of this building from becoming a tenament filled with a lively variety of low income folks.
    The practical application of such arrangements have historically been fraught with conflict and constant need for external supervision.
    There has been nothing mentioned or asked as to whether the developer is capable of managing the project in such a way as to prevent this from being just another three story human beehive with all the attendant problems which come when 50+ families attempt to live literally shoulder to shoulder inside a single building.
    Current City Police responses to vandalism will look like child's play compared to the potential for containing the darker elements of our society which cannot be effectively or proactively eliminated from such a project.
    Poor people do what ever is necessary to augment their income, just as we all do, the only difference is the options for "commerce" are usually and unfortunately limited to wholly unlawful activities.

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  21. After the City Council meeting on the 19th of February, the developer's representative admitted to several in attendance that the developer has pencilled themselves in for a mere 12% General contractor/management fee.
    This would amount to a cool MILLION+ bucks for the developer.
    This equates to 40% of the total estimated value of the finished product!! (at 2.5 million)
    "Chance" (what a name for a developer's representative!)claims that the need for a City of Nampa sponsored Urban Renewal area is based on the need to improve the or "increase the competiveness" of the DEVELOPER's bid/application for tax credits from the Federal Government. How is this possible I asked? Chance replied: "Securing an Urban Renewal designation for the project will allow the developer to add "15 points" which will "increase the comptetiveness" of their application bid for tax credits from the Federal Government."
    "Chance" went on to say that "they" could do the project WITHOUT a the blessings of an Urban Renewal designation, but it would allow them to reap the benefit of (ntold additional) tax credit dollars.
    I suspect that the "points" may equate to percentages which means if the City grants the new Urban Renewal area, the developer stands to gain and an additional $1,290,000 worth of tax credits.
    Currently Tax Credits sell for about "82 cents on the dollar" which means at very least the developer could reap the benefit of an additional $1,057,800 dollars!
    Despite this fact, this greedy developer is seeking a 100% tax rebate of all taxes paid to the TIF Urban Renewal to themselves!
    Projected value of this bit of "icing on the cake" is $399,870 over the next ten years!
    Supposedly, the developer needs this money to repay the projected costs of new water lines and fire hydrants etc. for this area which is estimated to be $350,000.
    By defintion, oversight of the project and all decisions regarding quality and quantity of work will be left up to the developer with no guarantee that full value for taxpayer dollars will be realized.
    I can see low ball contractors performing at best minimally acceptable work helping Nampa to realize Councilwoman Pam White's utopian vision of "embracing the future" and providing low cost housing for the masses.

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    1. Welcome to Team Tom and Company's utopian vision of green cement contactors, shoddy crackerbox constructed buildings, and slumdog millionaires. Kinda makes one wonder what is going on behind the curtains.

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  22. Paul you are dodging the obvious truth in what I stated earlier as well as any politician. I would have hoped better from you.

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  23. Politicians - because they are either evil or stupid - not to mention impotent, morally reprehensible and believe the voters are stupid and their pet projects are far too complicated for the voters to understand and therefore must bypass the voters is the same as saying they are a sovereignty and not subject to any laws, rules or even held accountable.

    To honestly keep voting the same idiots back into office again and again is obscene and perhaps the new definition of insanity. Most of all for people to keep believing their politician is not the problem is a failure to reason honestly, or to care sufficiently about your fellow man. No wonder our education system is a farce, so the phoney baloney idiots can keep their jobs. Those who cry out against higher taxes are not thinking clearly, or else you would vote differently.

    If you’re going to look into anyone’s credit history then it should be the developer. The banks probably said no. $8,500,000.00 for a project that's worth $2,500,000.00 when you are done is not good business sense, so to afford it, soak the taxpayers that’s policy number one for any developer. I think the Owyhee Plaza Hotel will prove to be a prime example of this. If the former owner couldn’t make a go of it then why keep him on as manager? The old hospital’s developers anointed one, “Chance,” is a prime example of developer greed at work and yes, it will be marginal contractors used (best value for taxpayer dollar) doing minimally acceptable contacting work because in Idaho your “best effort” means mediocre at best and you’ll excuse it away to any politician who wants to appease the angry mob (taxpayer) with “I am trying to provide – insert excuse here e.g. jobs – and provide a service.”

    Tom Dale and his marginal acceptable cronies all need another term – in prison (for fraud), but given the Ada County Dynamis deal, and the Bujack deal, I am certain “there would be no evidence to prosecute.”

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  24. Those that care can only do so much with their one vote. The problem is that many don't vote or only vote the way they are programmed to via the mainstream media. As long as people can watch their favorite sitcom on tv then they really don't seem to care.

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