The elected Politicos of Caldwell are holding yet another meeting on the new city hall project for downtown. The Guardian spotted the notice in the Legal Ads in the IPT today. The meeting is scheduled for the 22nd of this month at the Caldwell Fine Arts Center (the old Catholic Church property)6:00 to 7:30 PM. Team Garret and the Oppenheimer Group will give us yet another presentation of what will be a $30 Million project that will be both a new city hall and retail space at 7th and Blaine Streets.
Has anyone given any thought to why we are not getting to vote this project up or down. The short answer is Caldwell East Urban Renewal rakes in $6 Million right off the top of property tax dollars every year and you get zero say on how this property tax money is spent. The new city hall "meeting" is purely a perfunctory effort to say the public has endorsed spending all this money without voter approval and it will be full speed ahead after the meeting.
If the financials on this project go out beyond one budget cycle for any reason then the city will be in violation of Article VIII sec.3 of the Idaho Constitution. Team Garret and the merry men may find themselves in front of a Judge trying to explain what is going on here. Public private partnership is another way of saying we just signed everyone up for a long term debt. Courts in Idaho have already ruled on this shell game played by cities and urban renewal boards.
Next, there is the issue of $470,000 worth of studies and reports on downtown Caldwell done by various experts in revitalization. All of these studies and for the most part, none of what they had to say is being incorporated in this project.
What Caldwell needs is "economic catalyst" not a new city hall. There is not a single function that will take place in new digs that isn't already happening in current city hall office spaces. The only issue is that city functions occupy two locations about two blocks apart.
Team Garret and his merry men think if they build a new city hall it will somehow spark new economic growth in downtown Caldwell. A better use of urban renewal money would be to buy old buildings and tear them down selling the bare ground to private enterprise in a manner that will put the dirt on a par with virgin dirt outside the city core. Call it a subsidy to economic growth. A new city hall will simply take property tax generating property off the tax rolls in downtown.
More troubling in all of this is that the city will be on the hook for close to $10 million for their share of this new city hall project. You don't get a say on this deal but you do get a nice meeting with some pretty pictures. You have been removed from the CAPITAL BUDGETING PROCESS! Urban Renewal is robbing you of any say in how your tax dollars are getting spent in Caldwell.
Lastly, where is the citizen committee report certifying the need for a new Caldwell city hall?
No comments:
Post a Comment
A public discourse on the issues of the day makes the world a better place.
We welcome comments but they will be moderated and edited if too long or do not have anything to do with the post.
Agree or disagree just do it without profanity or it won't get posted. Try to keep your comments to no more than 300 words. Too long and I will try to edit it down or simply delete the comment. The whole idea is to get people to read your comment. Don't use 10 words when one will do the job.
It's OK to have a difference of opinion but keep it civil. I have used the "delete" feature on myself at times.
The ANONYMOUS feature for comments seems to be the most user friendly. People have commented they have difficulty with the other methods of posting comments.