More "Magic" Via Urban Renewal in Nampa

This past Tuesday evening Nampa City Council met to discuss the possibility of making the old Mercy Hospital building in Nampa into yet another Urban Renewal District.  All is is more magic, along with smoke and mirrors to pour over $8 million taxpayer dollars that will transform the old dilapidated structure into 50 senior citizen living units.  The final assessed value was estimated to come in at around $2.5 million once the project is completed.

Councilman Bob Henry suggested in the discussion on the project the possibility of putting the measure up for a vote when the city runs the issue of adding two more city council slots.  Mayor Tom Dale is reported to have suggested that this is far to complicated to put up for a vote of the good people of Nampa.  They simply would not understand the complexity of this project.

The real issue here is why would the leaders of Nampa even consider funding or even encouraging a project so upside down as this one.  All of the smoke and mirrors of the funding elements and inflow of taxpayer dollars does not make financial sense.  This money has to be paid back.  Additionally,  the project will end up with 50 living units that will cost about $160,000.00 each when the project is completed. 

The "magic" of this project is pure PORK FUNDING and more property taxes shifted onto Nampa and all county property taxpayers.  The foregone and forgiven property taxes creates a tax shift that has to be made up by all county taxpayers.  The "magic" is the way 70% of taxpayer dollars disappear.

Is it any wonder property tax levy rates are overall 40% higher in Canyon County than in Ada County?

 Here's a link to the Idaho Press Tribune article in todays edition: 

http://www.idahopress.com/members/nampa-city-council-needs-more-time-to-consider-mercy-hospital/article_bb8a780c-7bf3-11e2-b236-001a4bcf887a.html#.USYwQmfagsU.aolmail

Due Diligence Fair Relocation Letter From Caldwell Chamber of Commerce

February 13, 2013

Dear Members

Caldwell Chamber Launches “Due Diligence 2013”

To Evaluate Canyon County Fair Relocation Proposal

CALDWELL---The Caldwell Chamber of Commerce will launch shortly an in-depth evaluation of the impacts of a proposal to move the Canyon County Fair from its present location in Caldwell to a new site adjacent to the Ada County line, Chamber officials announced yesterday.

“Due Diligence 2013”, as the project is known, is a formal effort by the Chamber to examine and evaluate the overall rational behind the relocation plans. The results of “Due Diligence 2013” will provide the Chamber and community at large with meaningful, factual, verifiable data to guide the Chamber in its future public position on the project, explained Julie Taylor, Caldwell Chamber Chair.

“Due Diligence 2013” will study a variety of elements of the proposal including:

· To what degree the move might impact the Caldwell business community, economy and individual citizens;

· Whether the proposal meets the litmus test of a generally acceptable business plan that will ensure self-sustaining profitability or will eventually require a subsidy,

· If taxpayer subsidies are required, would it impact the chances of passage of other tax funded projects such as a new jail, school district improvements, infrastructure improvement, etc.

· Whether the plan might ignite a new round of land speculation and unwarranted commercial development in what is now agricultural lands; and

· Whether or not moving the fair from its current location will negatively impact the traditional “Canyon County” nature and social heritage of the fair.

“We believe that the ‘Due Diligence 2013’ process will provide valuable information to our membership and the community at large because it will help provide answers to some of the important questions that are being asked about a proposal that could impact our City,” Taylor explained.

Chamber members with expertise in the various specific areas of concern will be used to help develop a factual and unbiased evaluation for consideration by the Chamber membership, Chamber officials said.

No time frame for completion of the project has been set. However, it is expected that the process will last through the coming summer with information and findings being released to the public as it is made available to Chamber membership, according to Taylor.

A letter outlining the project has also been sent to the Fair Board asking for its cooperation in the effort.

Theresa Hardin

Executive Director

Caldwell Chamber of Commerce

Prisons Shutting Down Nationwide in WSJ

Monday's Wall Street Journal had a very good article on page 3 of the first section on prisons shutting down all over the country for various reasons. The first of which is the cost of operating prisons againt the tough on crime approach that has led to nothing short of a boom in the construction of jails and prisons for the past three decades.

 States are now looking to cut costs of government.  Prisons and jails are  big fat targets. The baic thought behind all this is there are two classes of inmates: those we are afraid of and those we are just mad at. The afraid of class is the murderes, rapists, child molesters and the like. The folks we are mad at just won't behave to societal norms for drug and alcohol issues and other low level offeses.

 Canyon County taxpayers can be very happy with the outcomes of three failed bond elections to build a new jail. We can all be thankful the 2,000 bed jail city proposed for the property the county commisioners purchased out on Hwy 20/26 did not pass muster with voters. In Canyon County we have more people we are simply mad at than those we are afraid of to have on the streets.  We live in a very safe environment despite what you see on the local news each day.

Gun Control In Mexico

Got this pearl of wisdom from a friend who has the ability to cut through the clutter and noise to the real issue of more gun control.  Mexico has some of the toughest gun laws in the world.  How's that working out down there? They have more gun violence from the drug cartels and at last count around 50,000 people dead from gun violence.

We are hit with every single gun crime on the daily new rundowns on network and cable TV.  Yet there has been not a peep about the harsh gun law restrictions in Mexico and just how ineffective their gun laws are when the body count it tallied.

I do hear a smattering of the need for more and better mental health options in this country to help ward off gun violence but it is going nowhere in most of the media reporting.  We need a place to put people with propensities for violence and that is not more jail and prison space.

Boomer Generation Needs to Hurry Up and Die!

There have been several articles on birth rates and death rates in various publications THE GUARDIAN reads on a regular basis.  The birth rates in developed countries as well as China have dipped below 2.0.  This means there are fewer and fewer people to pay all the bills governments generate as well as the costs of what has come to be called "entitlement costs". 

The Prime Minister of Japan who is in his 70's just wants older people to die as they are costing the government and Japanese taxpayers too much money.  We hear it on a daily basis; the high costs of "entitlements" is going to bankrupt our county.  The blip in the rapid descent of birthrates of the early 20th century called the boomer generation are likewise going to cost a fortune to keep them all pulling air no matter the ever increaseing costs of their collective medical care. 

Americans in general operate under the assumption that there is a cure for old age and that eventually death will be optional.  The big question in all of this is; at what cost all this will be to younger people and the wellbeing of society.  The Republicans in Congress argued against Obamacare due to the "death panel" approach to preauthorizing extreme measures to keep grandma and grandpa alive no matter the costs.  Sen. Mitch McConnell called it tantamount to "throwing grandma under the train".

In a WSJ article this weekend there is a very good article on falling birthrates and taking care of the older generations.  For example in Japan they sell more pampers for old people than they do babies.  Again the Prime Minister sees the way out of all this if only the old people in Japan would hurry up and die.

At the age of 66 THE GUARDIAN has given long and hard thought to the fact that the median life span for a male is around 78 years of age.  Now that means that 50% have reached their expiration date prior to 78 and 50% of us will expire at some unknown date post our collective 78th birthday.  What we don't know is how and when all this will unfold for each of us as we move to our demise.

In chatting with a couple of people who have had the traditional burial experience, the tab for the living runs to about $20,000!  A simple cremation runs less than 1/10th of that cost.  Another aspect is do you have a living will with directives for maintaining your existance on life support or do you want to cease medical heroics.  The deal here is to let your wishes be known and make the process a prepaid event for your survivors.  Otherwise, it becomes an emotional event way out of your control.  Here's a link to the Idaho Attorney Generals website on LIVING WILLS AND DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY.  This set of documents is free and shame on you if you don't have one  http://www.ag.idaho.gov/livingWills/livingWills_index.html