The downtown project will encompass and renew the site from Summer's Office Supply Bldg withsome facade work and the purchaseand removal ofall the existing buildings on the south side of Arthur Street to the walking path along Indian Creek. A motion was made to move this project forward via a $1MM incentive package to any developer willing to take on a project of mixed used to be defined by a group of downtown business development people. The project will be a mixed use of retail, condo and professional services. Developer who takes on the project as well as final ownership of the project can expect up to $1MM in the form of a reimbursement for land acquisition and demolition costs. Payback to Caldwell taxpayers will come in the form of property taxes levied on the project and individual owners of condos and other spaces in the project.
Canyon County Commissioner's got approval for a new 45,000 sf. County Administrative building to be constructed on the parking lot to the south of the County Coroner/Forensic Lab Offices. The CEURA Board passed a motion for the Chairman to prepare a resolution for revenue bonds to be issued for this project. Canyon County will be responsible for the construction and supervision of the construction and bonds will be repaid via the URA increment money the County is scheduled to receive from 2015 to 2022. Funds to the county will be in the neighborhood of $1.3MM per year for eight years that remain on the life of CEURA. The new building will be about $7MM depending on bids and specifications.
County services to be located in the new admin. building will be Development Services, Commissioners, Clerk Auditor and other county offices. The existing courthouse will be made over into courtrooms, office spaces for the County Prosecutor and Public Defender and other judicial functions. The plan also calls for an 80 bed expansion for a women's section of the County Jail and conversion of the Elections building into an alternative sentencing facility akin to 24/7 programs used in other counties.
I'm surprised you support the UR project for the new county building. This takes away the rights of the people to vote in bond elections for capital projects. This action will place the money control in the hands of UR until 2022. This project will produce no net jobs and will only make the county government larger.
ReplyDeleteHere's the short version... URA money will still go to CEUA until 2022 and even with the sunset of the agency the money continues to the URA and they intend to send it back to the various taxing districts for capital projects the taxing districts wish to undertake. In Nampa the first URA was dismantled but the money went to keep the doors open on the Idaho Center.
ReplyDeleteThe money from CEURA could go back to the County General Fund and they would spend it on who knows what and have nothing to show for this money. There is a genuine need for a new admin building and there is a demonstrated savings to taxpayers with this project.
I have fought the good fight to get URA's to let taxpayers vote on long term debt and got beat up along the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. URA's have been granted "wide powers" by the Idaho Legislature with no oversight of any kind by any state or local entity. I have testified for the last three years at the legislature on this issue and they have been disinclined to change anything regarding URA's with any kind of voter oversight. That said I would rather see the money go for a capital project v. other intangible items.
That sounds like a cop out Paul. Are you giving up? Stick to your principles, don't back down and keep fighting the good fight.
DeleteThey still could use that money more wisely and not spend as much as they are planning to. I would much rather see them sock that money away and build a reserve fund back up as a hedge against a faltering economy where more cuts are looming on the horizon. 7 million on a new building? Why not rehab an existing building like the old Health and Welfare building. Or how about leasing space like another reader posted at Karcher mall. The mis-management goes on and on and on. I am so glad to see our commissioners will finally get that shiny new office while touting there isn't enough taxes being taken in so there will have to be more cuts, layoffs, reductions in services to the public etc. I am truly disgusted. Ferdinand's ousting can't come soon enough. Rule should have been punted too.
ReplyDeleteand Alder too! she's next! 2 years and counting.
DeleteThis is one time I must strongly disagree with Paul. The powers that be in Canyon County have said again that the taxpayers have no say in how their tax money is spent. I guess that we deserve the type of goverment that we have because we the citizens will not stand up and demand better. Its a sad state of affairs we have in our city, county , state and Federal goverments and its only going to get worse.
ReplyDeleteThe best government is NO Government? What's your grand plan?
DeleteWith the CEURA funding these new and highly visible projects, it should be interesting to see the level of support by city and county employees facing cuts and some losing their jobs while the construction goes on. I suspect some new unintended political alliances will emerge possibly with positive results. I am sure Nampans are chuckling about their good fortune but they are not really getting the "last laff".
ReplyDeleteThe real growth that Caldwell needs has probably just got mired in a little more molassas. I believe southwest Idaho is destined to grow but with extended high taxes caused by nonproductive spending such as this, it will be much slower in Caldwell with resulting lower comparative property values (particularly Industrial/Commercial). CCEDC with its agent Mr Fultz and its CEURA bank is running out of assets to buy more interest in Caldwell.
For me this drama has ended, my interests are elsewhere.
Genuine need for a new building? What need? The county offices have been downsized. I don't see why we need to fund a new palace for our beloved commishes. First the new cop shop in Nampa, now this? Get real! More government waste. How about you give the money back to those you stole it from. There is a good use for it.
ReplyDeleteMy plan is to leave Idaho. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteMy view is Idaho is pretty much a two class state... rich and working poor. With each passing day jobs in the middle are vanishing. Gone are Ore-Ida, Albertson's, MPC, HP has been rolling up for years and more hits to soon hit Boise, Micron whacking jobs and I am sure I have not covered all the carnage. I also read Bank of America is dismantling the ski lifts at Tamarack. The false growth of the construction industry has left a sea of homes foreclosed and plenty of others upsidedown with their mortgages.
ReplyDeleteIt will all boil down to "back to the future" for Idaho. Nothing more than a place not really close to anywhere and an economy built on low paying agrculture jobs. I feel really badly that we pour all that cash into educating our kids so they can take jobs elsewhere or face under-employment here in Idaho. I can only wonder how much more can be expected of Idaho taxpayers. There isn't very much more that can be extracted from working class people.
Had a yard sale last weekend, and people get to talking. Every person that I talked to that was in the 46-64 year old age group had been laid off, fired, or downsized from their job. Sounds to me like some kind of silent age discrimination going on here in the good old Treasure Valley. Wake up folks, don't let them do this us.
DeleteWhere Are the Tea Party candidates for two commissioner seats. More disturbing yet is no opponents or choice in the GENERAL ELECTION. We call this place Paradise, Kissin' it Good Bye.
ReplyDelete