Nampa Development Corporation spent $108,000 to prevent a vote of the people when a legal challenge was made regarding their spending $68 million for a new police station and library without a vote of the people.
Here, once again, is the deal on Urban Renewal Funding. It is not free money, it is not federal funds returned to the local government. It is a massive property tax grab (shift) put in place by the Idaho Legislature to circumvent voter approvals of pork barrel goodies property taxpayers all over the county get stuck paying..LIKE IT OR NOT:
You pay property taxes to Urban Renewal Agencies whether you live in the District or not. Urban Renewal is a massive property tax grab and has to be made up by higher levy rates for all property tax payers.
Prime agricultural lands are routinely included in Urban Renewal Districts.
Urban Renewal Agencies can condemn property via the “Power of Eminent Domain” and transfer it to private ownership.
Urban Renewal Districts issue Revenue Bond debt without voter approval or taxpayer oversight. It eliminates your Idaho Constitutional rights to vote on debt.
Urban Renewal Districts siphon off millions of property tax dollars from local taxing districts every year, increasing everyone’s property taxes.
Urban Renewal commissioners are appointed by Mayors; they are not elected by voters. There is no voter oversight of Urban Renewal Agencies and commissioners.
Urban Renewal Agencies can legally become developers and construct commercial projects for lease in direct competition with the private sector.
IDAHO URBAN RENEWAL LAW NEEDS TO BE AMENDED OR REPEALED.
Let your Legislators know you want this abuse of taxpayers to stop. Most Legislators do not know how UR works against property owners.
The fix is simple:
1. Voter approval in a county wide election to approve formation of UR agencies due to county tax impacts
2. UR Boards stand for county wide election due to county tax impacts
3. Life of the agencies to be no more than 10 years and a defined project plan with no changes to include additions not covered in original plan
4. Debt bonding to stand for county wide elections due to county tax impact
5. UR agencies confined to blighted downtown areas and are prohibited by statute from inclusion of ag land in the district.
Pretty simple fix to a pork barrel program that is totally out of control in Idaho. Most Legislators do not understand how UR agencies are pilfering the pockets of all county property tax payers and this needs a legislative fix.
It takes no talent to spend other people's hard earned money! We are not taxed too little, our elected officials spend too much of our money without our approval.
All the proof needed to see the writing on the wall regarding CEUR's ways is in print in an article in Sundays IPT. It only takes a little reading between the lines to see where the current administration has taken us, if we could only open our eyes and see the truth:
ReplyDeleteUrban renewal projects
Since it was established in 1998, Caldwell East Urban Renewal Agency has funded numerous major projects, most recently the uncovering and landscaping of Indian Creek and the new Treasure Valley Community College building.
Other notable projects to which the agency contributed include:
• Restoration of the city’s historic train depot.
• The new I-84 Franklin Interchange.
• The Caldwell Family YMCA, to which urban renewal pledged nearly $10 million over a 10-year period.
• Various infrastructure improvements including a major expansion of the wastewater treatment plant and a 10-megawatt Idaho Power distribution line that helped spur development in east Caldwell.
Let's all get our calculators out and add up all the property taxes these projects will generate back into the tax base for Caldwell...
And our response to this fleecing of Caldwell's taxpayers is to gather around the CUER shrine of financial irresponsibility, AKA TVCC, and listen to our mayor sooth us back into complacency with his crooning.
$16.1 million seems a little high. Are you sure about this?
ReplyDeleteThe total price paid for the TVCC project of $16.1 million comes from the City Finance Director, Eljay Waite, the minutes of CEURA and the Million dollar loan taken out to furnish the palace by CEURA, the give away rent payments given to TVCC (their lease contract shows they are only paying for 20,000 sqft of the 39k in the building) the pay back costs to Oppenheimer Development, site improvements and finally parking lot construction and land acquisition costs for the parking.
ReplyDeleteWe would welcome any correction to this total cost should anyone have better numbers.
I have heard TVCC downtown is just a backdoor effort to build a new city hall. The place is too small and TVCC will outgrow the place and then what? TVCC vacates the place for a larger facility to be built at the original site in Sky Ranch on property owned by the Urban Renewal agency.
ReplyDeleteWhen Urban Renewal Sunsets (2014) as stated in the IPT won't all of the property allocated become property of the city?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a nice building. I hope it makes Caldwell businesses grow and prosper. I'm not just sure yet. My grandson is attending classes this fall, so that is a good thing. At least the image of Caldwell has changed, from "Dakan's Dump" to "Nancolas' New Hope".
ReplyDeleteGiven that the TVCC lease is only year to year (TVCC states that their budget from the state resets annually, so can only commit to an annual contract,) I would say somewhere along the way the discussion of a city hall as "PLAN B" must have been brought up behind closed doors.
ReplyDeleteIf TVCC succeeds, the 'cartoon depiction' of Caldwell's future shows a city hall adjacent to TVCC, where the parking lot now sits and the Mayors concert stage was set up for the Indian Creek Fest.
If the TVCC fails, the city hall would be a natural fit, because lets be honest, who else would need a building of that caliber in Caldwell?
At the end of the day, whether it's TVCC or a Ciry Hall, the property taxes generated on the property will still be zero.
Keep in mind that the whole project started with no lease, so the original deal was $350,000 a year in income from TVCC for the entire building, as stated verbatiim in the mayors state of the city address at O'Connor field house. Since the mayors promise of a new tomorrow, TVCC has come back to say that not only would the attendance forecast be downgraded, but also that they had no money for personal property and CEUR would need to front the money for computers, desks, and a coffee shop internally to the tune of well over a million dollars. It's obvious that a lack of contract has resulted in TVCC being in the drivers seat on the project, which is never going to keep the cost down.
Regarding the cost to build, LEED standards are extremely expensive given the extra measures to meet the standards. Higher efficiency HVAC, insulation, lighting, etc, are put into place during construction at a huge cost above and beyond the standards.
The bet is that the building will recoup the extra expenses in the life of the building by way of cheaper utilities monthly, but given that Idaho's utility rates are some of the cheapest in the country, the added expense is hard to justify given the drawn out time-line needed to repay the investment.
Coincidentally, both elementary schools in Caldwell were built to meet LEEDs standards, but only went to Silver level because to go from SILVER status to GOLD requires a huge fee to be certified , in addition to the added cost of construction.
Add to the mix that the land was purchased post Indian Creek revitalizatin, which rocketed the value of the land skyward to a premium sales price. The argument has been made by some that the buildings on the site that were purchased were old, run down, and had a large amount of deferred maintenance and needed to be purchased. At least they were generating property taxes, unlike the current shrine.
Finally, lets not forget that the building was actually constructed by a private developer, thus eliminating the need for public disclosure to Caldwell's citizens, along with the usual requirement for bids, as required in any city project. The developer needs to be repaid rapidly. Reports are that the debt will be retired simultaneously with the sunset of CEUR.
So the citizens of Caldwell are left with a 16 million dollar building that cost $412 dollars a foot to build with an initial investment recoup time of nearly 81 years to repay at 200k yr (assuming 100% occupancy) with a tenant who will only sign a year to year lease
It's the greatest sham in Caldwell's history and Caldwell's citizens should demand Eljay's resignation and escort him out of town.
What galls me is the State of Oregon paid nothing for this project. All the costs are on the backs of Caldwell taxpayers and student fees. Add to this they send 20% of their gross revenue back to Oregon.
ReplyDeleteThis is a business model that is not sustainable. Nancolas and Mr. Waite have not explained how TVCC is of any benefit to Caldwell beyond all the blather.
I took a tour of the building during the grand opening. Why are there stickers on everything that says Caldwell Partners? The computer lab has one on every computer. The big screens through out the building have them. The college should have moved over what they had at the old campus. It may have been crowded but was working and bought computers and everything else as they could have afforded it. Why as a tax payer am I paying for thay. I am outraged.
ReplyDelete