Taxes
Ada Spent $15,000 To Collect $10,000
A report from Ada County Treasurer to the Commishes Tuesday confirms the county lost nearly $15,000 in property tax revenue when officials excused back property taxes on the Red Hawk subdivision north of Hidden Springs. Since the county now owns the land they would actually be taking money of of one public pocket and putting [...]
County Attempts Cover Up On Questionable Land Deal
Ada County officials are squirming over the recent purchase of land without an appraisal mandated by Idaho law. The GUARDIAN has confirmed that neither elected Assessor Bob McQuade nor his chief deputy, Tim Tallman, were consulted about the so-called appraisal and no one with a commercial appraisal license ever supervised the appraisal as claimed in [...]
County Land Purchase Violated Idaho Law
Public records obtained by the GUARDIAN indicate the Ada County purchase of a foothills subdivision May 8 was contrary to Idaho Code 31-807 which mandates an appraisal by a LICENSED appraiser must be made prior to purchase. The applicable law states: “…but no purchase of real property must be made unless the value of the [...]
Ada County Buys Foreclosed Subdivision
First it was the Idaho Land Board purchasing a private storage business, now Ada County Commishes bought a foreclosed subdivision on 250 acres north of Hidden Springs and east of Highway 55 for $240,000. Known as Red Hawk Estates, the development fell on hard times and was foreclosed by Bank of The Cascades from Dry [...]
Boise To “Upgrade” Council Chambers For Only $1,300,000
UPDATE Tuesdy 5/8/12–Councilors passed the expenditure on a 4-2 vote. Councilors TJ Thomson and Ben Quintana stood up against staff and four of their colleagues to cast the no votes. Thomson noted it was hard to justify the expense in the face of the current budget crunch. The GUARDIAN was asked by one wag if [...]
Dynamis Looks Like “Garbage In, Garbage Out”
The DAILY PAPER posted a well done summary Thursday of the various short circuits experienced by an Eagle firm seeking to build a “waste-to-energy” facility at the county dump. Cynthia Sewell– publicly cited by Commish Sharon Ullman for her award winning reporting on the issue–told readers Dynamis and its CEO, Lloyd Mahaffey have refused to [...]
Skeptics Take Dim View Of Dynamis Power Plant
While the GUARDIAN has always been skeptical about the proposed “trash to energy” project at the county dump, more folks are jumping on the trash truck seeking to short circuit the plan. A Thursday meeting called by residents in the Hidden Springs area adjacent to the landfill was attended by Ada Commish candidates and reps [...]
Bikeboy Says Two Wheeler Plan Off Balance
Our long time two wheeler expert, Steve Hulme (aka Bikeboy) offers up his views on a new government spending spree for Boise bikes. By Steve Hulme The CCDC, in cahoots with the Central District Health Dept., are hoping to start upa bike-sharing program in Boise. On the surface, it sounds laudable… 140 bikes at 10-15 [...]
U.S. Corp. Taxes High, But Few Actually Pay
Senior Sen Mike Crapo put out a PRESS RELEASE today claiming the USA Corporate tax rate is the highest on earth and called the U.S. Government “antagonistic” toward job creators. Crapo claims there is also growing evidence that high taxes stifle business growth and employee wages. We see it a little differently. The following come [...]
When Lawyers Disagree Citizens Pay
The efforts of the GUARDIAN to pay for a 99 year lease on behalf of the North Ada County Fire and Rescue district were rejected by the Ada Commishes. Last month we presented a $99 check to Chairman Rick Yzaguirre on behalf of NACFAR for a lease from Ada County for the land under station [...]
GUARDIAN Leases Fire Station For 99 Years
After learning it will cost an estimated $1,000 to put a $99 lease question before North Ada County Fire District patrons in May, the GUARDIAN presented Ada County Commission Chairman Rick Yzaguirre with the full amount of the lease Friday. At issue is a lease agreement between NACFAR and Ada County for lease of #16 [...]
Update On School Levy Elections
We have received several comments from readers regarding the Tuesday School Elections. First are allegations that Boise’s ballot language disguises the fact they are seeking $70,000,000 which is broken down into $14,000,000 every year for 5 years. One reader claims the Meridian ballot is much clearer, adding the Boise cost pegged at a mere $7 [...]
School Levy Election Tuesday–Be Sure To VOTE!
A bunch of school levy elections set for Tuesday because the Idaho Legislature has shifted much of the cost of education to property owners while proclaiming legislators have “held the line” on tax hikes. They may have held the line, but only with a massive shift. To learn where to vote following the statewide redistricting [...]
Boise School Levy, YES or NO?
After a coin flip at the GUARDIAN world headquarters, the YES folks won top billing for this story, but the GUARDIAN will stick with long standing policy and not endorse issues or candidates. We provide the forum to further public discussion of important issues. The election is March 13. (We really did flip for top [...]
House Panel Votes To Keep State Out Of Commercial Ventures
On a 15-1 vote The House Resources and Conservation Committee approved a measure Wednesday to prevent the state endowment fund from purchasing and running businesses. This is a practice the GUARDIAN revealed in 2010 when the Dept. of Lands went into the private storage business with the purchase of Affordable Storage in Boise. With an [...]
Ball Park Bad Idea, Bieter Still Pitches It
Team Dave’s captain, Mayor Dave Bieter used the City Club of Boise Thursday as a forum to pitch a new public baseball park for private gain. We see it as another swing and a miss. At the same event, Bieter recruited the audience to seek petitions asking for a referendum to allow the city authority [...]
Urban Renewal Put To Death In CA
Here’s a LA Times article on the California Legislatures move to shut down all 400 of the “redevelopment agencies” (Urban Renewal in Idaho) as of February 1, 2012. The legislation was upheld by a 6-1 vote in the California Supreme Court. A caretaker will be appointed to pay off all remaining debt of each agency and [...]
Local Option Tax Hike Bill Likely In Legislature
A bill to bump up the sales tax by 1%–with voter approval–will probably surface in the coming legislative session. Ironic that local politicos and Chambers of Commerce favor allowing voters to approve a sales tax hike when last year they almost uniformly opposed allowing citizens to vote on long term public debt at airports and [...]
Eastern Idaho Energy Dreams Slowly Crumbling
Eastern Idaho’s grandiose efforts to attract business with “incentives” taken out of the pockets of taxpayers are slowly crumbling despite feeble attempts at life support. First it was the Hoku solar panel plant in Pocatello falling on hard times with plummeting stock prices and Idaho Power ready to pull the plug on its electricity. Now [...]
Burning Issues And Libraries Maxed Out
Our GUARDIAN staff tax expert has alerted us to possible funding issues in 2012 for some fire districts and libraries. These taxing districts are limited in their legal ability to levy taxes and as property values declined, they have almost uniformly “gone to the max.” City and county governments can raise budgets up to 3% [...]
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