Since 1994, Nampa City Hall’s mantra
has been “Tax ,Tax ,Tax, Borrow, Borrow, Borrow and SPEND SPEND SPEND”.
The result? Urban
Renewal spending and debt of $192,000,000.
What did we get for our money
you ask? Here are examples of how effectively our tax dollars were (or
are about to be) spent.
Urban Renewal tax dollars paid
$1,891,815.23 for a 17 acre parcel of bare land which was at the time tax
appraised for $13,500. That’s right…$100,000 per acre for land which tax appraised for $796.00 per acre.
What “willing seller” would
say NO to a “willing buyer’s” offer of 125 times more than the assessed tax
value!
Just to sweeten the deal and
make sure the Seller wouldn’t say NO to such a “hard driven” bargain, Urban
Renewal threw in a no-cost sewer line connection across the entire 17
acres PLUS interest of $180,293.28 on the new $1,199,413.08 promissory note
held by the seller. (See Pioneer Title Escrow #PN58395)
This was called the “IDACOLD”
purchase and it certainly did put a lot of taxpayer’s dollars on ice.
Then current Urban Renewal
Commissioner/Councilman Thorne signed all the IDACOLD purchase documents in
behalf of the North Nampa Urban Renewal District.
No surprise that Mr. Thorne is
now on record of not caring that 8.6 MILLION dollars of taxpayer money for the
Mercy Rehab Project will be melted down to a taxable value of only 2.5 MILLION
(with NO positive tax-flow from the project for at least ten years).
The IDACOLD purchase pales by
comparison to the $50,000,000 cost of the Idaho Center (plus six-figure losses
every year since it opened in 1996).
Current appraised price for
the Idaho Center? It doesn’t matter. No one wants to buy it for any
price.
How many more “good” deals can
we afford? NO more, not one.
Sincerely yours,
Kim Blough
Nampa, Idaho
Urban Renewal is a monkey on every Idaho property owner's back. What does it take to get this monster back in its cage?
ReplyDeleteThe mayor of Nampa, Tom Dale is obviously following the lead of Obama when it comes to spending the country or the city into unrecoverable debt.
ReplyDeleteTeam Tom and Company, and that includes Bob Henry have turned Nampa City Hall into a Constitution Free Zone. When the People pass thru the doors all of our rights disappear.
ReplyDeleteThere are unlimited "good deals" that can be exploited now that the test case of the Mercy rehab has been ruled legal by city attorney Terry White under State law. Think of the possibility's--Renovation of old library--Pix theater--Nampa Livestock Auction barn--expansion of the farmers market. Mayor Dale has systematically purged any opposition to his plans from the Nampa Urban Renewal Board. Hold onto your wallet.
ReplyDeleteSure hate to speculate what Nampa is going to be like at the turn of the next decade. By that time Tom and Team Tom will be gone, and the payments due on all these projects will have to be paid. The taxes will go through the roof.
ReplyDelete