If you think I-84 is bad at rush hour, you should of seen Bogus Road on Sat. morning. Looked like an elephant train all the way up the hill. Many of the cars with single occupants. The gas stations probably benefited more than anyone else.

Seems the elephant is drinking less water, yet being charged more — another sign of the times. See interesting article in DAILY about water rate increases in a down economy:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/04/1141093/water-bills-go-up-in-down-economy.html#storylink=omni_popular

I would like to see the article localized for Idaho. Meridian’s water/sewer rates recently increased, further burdening unemployed and cash-strapped city residents to cover costs of new developments. As I have pointed out before, the city is not collecting development fees that would help pay the way for new construction. Sen. Shirley McKague calls development fees “hidden taxes;” I say so are rate hikes. I believe the BOCC is currently addressing the development fee question. I’d be interested in learning the board’s decision on this issue.

Paul,

Ada County’s Development Services staff was reduced by 59% from its 2008 staff level — a reduction of 26 full time employees. The department’s Director now splits his time between the directorship of two separate departments at the county — Development Services and Indigent Services.

I can’t speak for municipal departments, but I imagine they’ve seen a similar reduction in staff — on the planning & zoning side.

It’s hard for a community to cut building department staff, since the permit revenue from the building division (especially in smaller communities) composes a large part of a city’s revenue projections. This is not so much a wise practice, as it is a common practice.

Conversely, Planning & Zoning fees(i.e., Development Fees) rarily, if ever, cover the costs to process the development applications. This is why you tend to see large reductions in P&Z staff during economic downturns, while building department staff (plans examiners and building inspectors) are usually more protected.

There must be something in the water at City and County offices. Mayors and Councilmen come from many walks of life but it is somewhat rare for them to be successful developers. Successful developers are too busy making money to lower themselves to public office. However, the first thing many elected officials do after taking office is tap the local tax base to fund one cockamamie get rich scheme after another. It would be much nicer if they would just stick to fixing the roads and bridges.

I agree CO, I’m sure Joe the Plumber would have stuck to plumbing if he became a politician. He had values.

I tend to agree with Zippo, and don’t have much confidence.

The Boise elephant is Dumbo the baby elephant. The BIG elephant in the room may not even be the “federal” elephant but rather the world elephant.

Even in countries that still make stuff – like China – they are following the lead of our “elected representatives” (I use the phrase very loosely), and are pouring billions of nonexistent “stimulus dollars” into the black hole. The resultant “economic recovery” is as bogus as that shiny stuff our ski mountain was named after. I’m worried that it’s just a matter of time before the other shoe drops, and even the people who have money will wake up and discover their money no longer has value.

But I’m no economist, and I pray that I’m wrong.

(I’m sure grateful that the state Constitution, and local laws, require the books to be balanced. Even though we have clueless weasels who try to get around those pesky rules at every turn. After all, the taxpayers are the goose that keeps laying golden eggs.)

Everyone (citizens and politicans alike) needs to think in generational terms — and stop thinking that somebody else is going to come along and inject money into our local economy.

This means investing in EDUCATION, to ensure that our kids will have every opportunity to capitalize on their native intelligence. Grow local businesses from the ground up by building the best and brightest workforce & company owners in the country.

Public education, kindergarten through university, is the single best investment of meager tax revenues — it’s actually the only expenditure that gives back to the community in the form of higher wage earnings and more successful businesses.

Unfortunately,

The biggest problem with public education is the physical form of the current school distribution. Put simply, it is the disappearance of the neighborhood school.

It is extremely difficult for parents to be involved in their children’s education when both parents need to work — and when the schools are no where near within walking distance of the student’s homes.

These two phenomena, so often overlooked in school district planning, are intrinsically linked. They combine to make life in a community much more expensive than it needs to be.

School district administration pay only appears excessive, when compared to the disproportionately low pay of the actual teachers. When these salaries are compared to peer positions in other fields (with similar budget and HR responsibilities) they are actually on the low-side.

What’s the solution? Actually start building & staffing neighborhood schools that kids can walk to. Let parents actually have an opportunity to cut their work hours, so they can be more involved in their childrens’ education.

In public planning circles there is far too much emphasis on trying to forge a Jobs/Housing balance in order to reduce commute lengths. But, trips to & from schools (by parents who are forced to drive their kids around to these basic needs) account for far more trips on the public roads than trips to work.

If public schools were better funded, and better planned to ensure walkability, trips during morning rush hour could be reduced by far more than any other means.

The center of every walkable neighborhood should be a public school, not some ersatz mixed-use, transit-oriented “lifestyle” center.