Mayors of Caldwell and Nampa have dug themselves a huge hole with urban renewal purchases of their respective downtown properties.
They took immanent domain off the table as a bargaining chip when buying the property and let the owners literally name their price. Now all hell has broken loose given the County Assessor is required by law to use urban renewal purchase data to calculate new assessed valuations.
The facts are urban renewal purchases could not be ignored came out at the meeting in Caldwell last week. County Assessor, Gene Kuehn went through how assessments are determined and was quite clear on how urban renewal purchases influenced commercial valuations.
Our local paper and other legacy media outlets have made no mention of the negative influence created by urban renewal and irresponsible purchases on assessments. Mayors Nancolas and Dale made their smoke and mirror efforts with resolutions and pitched the problem to the Commishes. The Commishes dumped it right back into the commercial property owners laps to appeal the assessments. Property owners have to come up with comps showing the values are not correct and all they have, for the most part, are urban renewal purchases to deal with on their appeals.
Urban Renewal agencies are created by the Mayor and City Councils. They are raking in huge amounts of property tax monies and spending it with little regard for the consequences they are creating. Inflated property values is one, favoritism is one, and boosterism is another. Blight removal and economic development could not be further from their collective thought processes.
Mayors Nancolas and Dale want higher property valuations so they can spend more money with no voter oversight. Now they want to unwind the commercial tax assessment damage they have created and distribute the damage on commercial property to ALL PROPERTY OWNERS. Is Pontius Pilot in the room, they have washed their hands of creating this mess.
If the assessments are reduced on commercial property it will create a tax shift to residential property owners. Our elected Politcos have done nothing to reduce the levy rates where they have control of property taxes we all pay. It is time for them to walk the talk.
Urban Renewal is an evil empire within city governments with no taxpayer oversight. Urban Renewal collects more than one third of all property taxes collected in Caldwell. Homes and businesses in the urban renewal districts pay no taxes for police, fire, schools, ambulance, highways and streets and the list goes on and on. Caldwell East Urban Renewal Agency land mass is over 30% of the taxable land and property in the city limits of Caldwell.
Property taxpayers continue to be abused by Urban Renewal Law and Agencies in Caldwell and Nampa. The consent of the governed has been removed and a dictatorship has been allowed free reign for too long
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