THE GUARDIAN went to the Local Government Committee meeting today in order to testify in behalf of HB 560 and HB 580 in the hope these two bills would pass a committee vote and go to the Idaho House for a full debate and vote on the House floor. Both measures failed to get out of committee with votes against these two bills by Canyon County Representatives Collins and Perry of Nampa.
HB 560 was a bill sponsored by Representative Bob Schaefer of Nampa and would have been the first step to terminating Urban Renewal Agencies statewide in Idaho. It has been reported to THE GUARDIAN this is an election year and word came down from House Leadership to kill this bill in committee. The vote was 5 to 4 to "hold the bill in committee". Reps. Collins, Perry, Higgins, Luker and Marriott voting to kill the bill. It will take a motion and 50% plus one member to bring the bill out of committee.
HB 580 is a bill to hold URA's to the Idaho Constitutional requirement of a 2/3rds majority if URA's want to issue bonding debt. The Idaho Farm Bureau supported a do pass on this bill and a full floor debate and vote. The bill was held in Committee with a unanimous vote of the Local Government Committee (pending revision).
Urban Renewal is taxation without representation and we have a plethora of monuments to the waste, fraud and abuses by URA's all over Idaho. California has come to appreciate URA's were costing taxpayers Billions in California and had the good sense to shut down all 425 of these taxpayer abuse agencies effective February 1, 2012 and has been upheld by the Ca. Supreme Court.
Those in favor of the status quo with URA's testified that the voters recourse is the ballot box. If they don't like the actions of URA's they need to react at the ballot box and leave the current laws alone. Well folks, this is an election year and if you are tired of URA's consider making a change in our elected officials at the state and local levels.
Instructions were given from on high by House Leadership and it was like watching a tragedy in slow motion when these two bills went down in flames at the Local Government Committee today.
We also learned today URA's have a statewide association headed up by the former Director of CCDC, Phil Kushlan. He now heads up the Redevelopment Association of Idaho another arm of the pro URA lobby efforts in Idaho.
If our only contribution to local government is giving 100% trust to those who win at the ballot box, we are tricking ourselves. When we elect an official, we do not give that individual carte blanche to do as he or she wishes. We need guidelines as well as the ballot box to be sure officials are reflecting our best interests.
ReplyDeleteJG says...
Urban renewal initiatives are costly and should not be approved without taxpayer input since it is the taxpayer that ends up paying every dollar. Could we at least pay attention to the problems California ran into with Urban Renewal and what they are doing about it?
George says..
ReplyDeleteWe should get a letter campaing going against them right away and it just might get the others attention. There should be several people That would be willing to take part in the letter campaign . It would be good if there were three or four a week going into the paper. the letters should paint them as being for big government allowing politicians to spend huge amounts of our tax money and cheating tax payers out of their constitusional right to vote on huge tax spending projects. The letters should be directed right at Perry and Collins
What are the contact addresses for these two public servants?
ReplyDeleteEmail, USPS addresses etc.?
I will be writing immediately, just need to the addresses!
Well now we have seen and identified the enemy. It's up to us to see that they are not reelected. I would like to hear their explanation for their positions. Maybe a read of the Declaration of Independence would be in order. To me this is not a disagreement in policy but an insult of the first order.
ReplyDeleteMs. Perry has an opponent who has filed John Gough 28221 Fox Lane, Wilder, Idaho 83676--Anybody know any thing about him? So far Mr. Collins does not have a challenger
ReplyDeleteThe Local Government Committee that shelved these bills has 11 members. Apparently, the vote was 5-4. If I knew how to post a petition on the internet, I would do so, hoping to get sufficient signatures requesting this committee reconsider HB 560 & HB 580. Maybe with the other 2 members in attendance, the bills would make it out of committee & go on to be adopted. I hate to let this opportunity pass; however, we all MUST work to defeat Perry, Collins, Patty Lodge & Curt McKenzie.
ReplyDeleteSomebody has to take the time and effort to run against incumbents. The deadline for filing for state office is March 9th, 2012. I think Perry has an opponent and Collins is going to get another free ride into office for two more years.
DeleteThe only difference between the Republicans and the Democratic Parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations, URA's all knock on their door. That's the only difference.
ReplyDeleteThe below WEB pages have the Addresses, Phone Numbers and direct email entry form for each member of the legislature:
ReplyDeleteID State Legislature - House Member contact
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/house/membership.cfm
ID State Legislature - Senate Member contact
http://legislature.idaho.gov/senate/membership.cfm
Food stamps for businesses is the statement made by former Senator Rachel Gilbert in testimony supporting the termination of URA's in Idaho. Here's a link you might find interesting...
ReplyDeletehttp://magicvalley.com/news/local/one-urban-renewal-bill-fails-another-to-be-altered/article_ecf89137-49fc-5667-9e8c-88664da5d07c.html
I know several politicians who will not be getting my vote.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed to see the votes against the Urban Renewal legislation. Just want to let you know that I am Ronalee Linsenmann, candidate for Representative, Dist. 11 B - running against Christy Perry. I have consistently opposed the transfer of tax dollars to Urban Renewal Districts. Thank you to Paul and the local TAC committee for their many hours of research; and the fearless ladies from Coeur d'Alene -Sharon Culbreth and Rep. Kathy Sims. I stand with them in opposing Urban Renewal.
ReplyDeleteI guess none of you understands how an URD works. You hear the word taxes and immediately assume the worst. All the URD does is levie the improvement of property. If you owned commercial property, would you want it to be in an area that is thriving or an area with dilapitated buildings? Of course property tax would be higher in the thriving area, but having a successful business would far outweigh the increase in property tax.
ReplyDeleteHere in Boise, we can thank the CCDC for what the downtown looks like nowadays. It has attracted good businesses and has shaped the downtown into a wonderful community to live in. I'm very glad HB 560 was killed in committee. I look forward to the new URD in the 30th st. extension. This is where my business is located and will be more than happy to pay a higher tax for my business to be more successful.
Explain all this to business owners in downtown Caldwell. Shutterd buildings. Businesses shut down due to the URA buying property at highly inflated prices causing property owners all manner of financial pain. Nothing spent in downtown to benefit business owners but we do have a huge building built for out of state TVCC that is redundant to CWI at a very high cost to Caldwell taxpayers.
DeleteURA Boards are unelected bodies that get to spend millions of taxpyer dollars without any voter oversight nor participation in bonding that will have to be paid by property taxpayers.
Governor Brown in California took down URA's with the backing of a Democrat Legislature, yet Idaho can't seem to figure out just how wrong URA's are in a Republican State. The Legislature creates the laws and the Legislature can change the law. The problem is very few people understand how money flows to URA's as well as the negative impact on ALL property tax payers in counties where these aganecies exist.