Comments on: Wanna Pay For 200 Jobs?

By: Boise Banker

Boise Banker — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:31:07 +0000

Curious Geroge and others,

Even at $39k a year these people will be lucky to be able to pay rent, they will not be buying homes unless by some miracle they have $100k in equity from their first home. Besides that $50k median income number for Ada county is for all household income. If any of these people will have working spouses they should manage to make that $50k or even more if the spouse works full time.

WinCo does offer good benefits to its employees, to settle that question. They even have a fairly low turnover rate compared to other grocery chains.

At least these are jobs that pay well above minimum wage and only require a GED/highschool diploma or maybe even less. Maybe some burger flippers/assembly line workers will have a chance to move up the socio-economic chain; even if it is just a little bit.

By: shealyisnottheantichrist

shealyisnottheantichrist — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:29:18 +0000

I am with Curious George, (or Goerge). No ringing endorsement for Team Dave’s work in managing the city’s property. We should have elected Chuck Winder. Private sector people who have experience handling property and real estate issues are sorely needed on the City Council and in the Mayor’s office.

By: curious goerge

curious goerge — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:22:52 +0000

I’m not sure any amount of city effort was involved in securing the WinCo warehouse. The company is employee-owned and has always been headquartered in Boise, I can’t imagine the employees would have ever wanted to locate their warehouse anywhere but in the Boise area.

And the term “well paying” seems to be a little overstated. Although “in the teens” could mean as much as $39K/year – this is still only 80% of the median income in Ada County (and probably no where near what these hardworking folks will be actually earning).

With this income a worker could purchase a home worth about $145K – which means that a lot of these folks will be buying homes in Mt. Home, but not Boise. There goes the collateral tax benefits, and any benefits to the Boise or Meridian School Districts.

Maybe these 200 will be buying in Kuna (maybe). If Kuna were a little closer to the freeway, WinCo would have located there. Hardly a ringing endorsement for Team Dave.

By: Joe in Boise

Joe in Boise — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:12:04 +0000

I approached the city a couple of years ago in hopes of renting or leasing the property at 23rd & Main (the old car lot) to be used as a car lot. The city would have made no improvements, just collect a check for a couple of G’s a month for letting an entrepreneurial citizen use the property to start a new business venture.

After several phone calls, the city real estate spokesmouth said “We arent sure what we are doing with that property, I will get back to you”, he never did, and the property still sits vacant. I know of others who have tried to purchase or lease the property, to no avail. I guess we werent on the right “list”.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:49:02 +0000

200 Job’s created at less than $10 an hr.
Chances are no benifit’s. So all these people that are forced to work there will be on some kinda of public assitance for medical. Damn aren’t we proud. Even our goverment is working to
make third world conditions in this country. Lets give the CEOs another raise. Its become the American way of thinking.

EDITOR NOTE–WinCo and Team Dave claim the jobs will pay “in the teens.” Perhaps, but businesses don’t come to Boise with hopes of paying high wages. Idaho wages increase at an above average rate many years. That’s how we went from #46 to #45 in wages the last go around.

By: Grumpy ole guy

Grumpy ole guy — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:22:31 +0000

I have to confess that I don’t fully understand the implications of all of this. Nor, I further confess, do I remember the history of this land being held by the City.

Is it that the City OWNS the land, or that it is private land which lies within the City’s area of impact and the Council has (encouraged, directed, ordered, prayed, dreamed) that it could and should become an “industrial park”? It seems, on the face of it, that it would be a good location for industrial (commercial) development; but, I realize the devil is always in the detail.

If the City PURCHASED the land, then obviously it has to yield some of its control or direction in the development of OTHER pieces of land (in other physical locations). It does seem fraught with the possibility for mischief and good old Ceaser’s wife is never really very pure after hanging out with that crowd, is she.

EDITOR NOTE–The problem as I see it is the city OWNS land and the council has declared said land to be SURPLUS and not in the public interest (or need) and yet little pieces get chipped away for business uses.

By: Mr. Logic

Mr. Logic — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:09:16 +0000

G-Man, you have mentioned a lot of this in the past. Seems like Team Dave has indeed “spent” the proceeds from land sales several times over. Perhaps they just “intend” to sell the land.

Not sure if 200 jobs are really worth the cost of engineer studies and road building efforts.

This post will prompt Wonk and Ryder to shake their pom poms like good development cheerleaders and then go home and kiss a wife.