City Government

Republican Insider Uses Own Funds Against Bieter Bonds

Republican insider Mike Tracy has used personal funds to send out a post card urging voters to oppose the two bonds on the November 5 ballot in Boise.

Tracy noted the sophistication of the campaign waged by Team Dave to get the bonds passed and decided to send his own message to conservative voters.

He counters the Bieter sales pitch of “$1 a month” saying, “Democrat Boise Mayor Dave Bieter and the Democrat controlled Boise City Council are trying to raise your taxes by $50 Million over the next 20 years. Make no mistake – THIS IS A BIG PROPERTY TAX INCREASE!”

The disclaimer on the card reads:
“Paid for by Mike Tracy | P.O. Box 154 | Boise, ID 83701
Former Communication Director for U.S. Senator Larry Craig • Former GOP District 18
Legislative Chair • Former Information Director for the Idaho Farm Bureau”

The GUARDIAN has also received a complaint from a voter claiming the campaign in favor of the Bieter Bonds is making robocalls which the citizen claims may be illegal. Our reader did some research and said the following:

“The original message does not give any contact information. It just says the call is from Dave Bieter and that the message was paid for by Keep Boise Safe and Liveable, Carolyn Boyce, Treasurer, but gives no info on how to contact them. The originating call number is 208 501-8379 and displays Out of Area on the caller ID.”

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. Here is all the info…
    http://cityclerk.cityofboise.org/city-elections/candidates/keep-boise-safe-and-livable/

    Part of this was published in the BW a couple of weeks ago.

  2. Angela Wyvern
    Oct 30, 2013, 4:40 pm

    Keep Boise Safe and Livable is a PAC easily found with a Google search. http://cityclerk.cityofboise.org/city-elections/candidates/keep-boise-safe-and-livable/

  3. Thank you Mike Tracy! I agree and plan to vote No! No! on the bonds.

  4. I believe our property taxes – which are by a significant margin the highest in the area – are intended to keep Boise safe and livable.

    I urge my fellow citizens to join me in voting No/No – send a message to our elected “representatives” that we feel they are already soaking us adequately. Let THEM live within their means, too. (When the city takes less than the absolute maximum allowed by law for their property tax levy, I may reconsider.)

  5. Good on Mike, direct mail is a great way to get his message out. Autosort in Boise does a very good job of direct mail. Not an ad for the just stating my experience using their services.

    Richard Gaona at the front desk of Autosort will guide you through the process quickly. Newspapers are not the most efficient way to get anything done on the cheap if you are trying to connect with voters.

  6. Interested Citizen
    Oct 31, 2013, 9:28 am

    The empire building is Boise is attempting to ramp us!!!

    You will tire of me saying this, but again, this deal is quite similar to the $70 Million speed trap jail bond debacle that failed three times in Canyon County.

    Nearly everyone in the official and public offices in Canyon County, and most especially all of the police chiefs, sherrifs, prosecutors, mayors, council members, and so forth were desperately pushing this thing as “crucial for the public safety”.

    Now, over three years later, are any of these experts and “law enforcement professionals” admitting that they screwed up?

    Why no accountability?

  7. It is not just a buck a month, I have not had a raise in 5 years, but humble and glad through the recession I kept my job. Despite no raise my property taxes have gone up, new school bonds, utilities have increased, etc. Our City leaders are ignoring or oblivious the struggles people are facing to get by and keep up. I do not feel the City has had to tighten their belt like I have.

    To adjust for these added expenses I canceled my storage unit rental and sold my boat, dropped cable TV, dropped my home phone and just use my cell phone, I am eating out less, buying less, and drinking at home instead of my favorite bar. While these are not huge sacrifices that I am NOT asking anyone to shed a tear for or even sympathize for me, BUT in the above there is about $400 a month not going into local businesses that used to and due to our leaders tax and spend mentality my quality of life and enjoyment of the retail community has diminished. Politicians like to promote the dollar multiplier theory then they pass laws and taxes that force us to spend less to fund a burgeoning government.

  8. Mike, Thanks you for sticking up for the tax payers. This city is so out of control I don’t know where to begin. Even during the downturn in the economy they raised taxes every year. The bond issue for the fire station upgrades is the most ridiculous thing, what kind of budgeting does the city have, if they don’t budget way in advance for deferred maintenance and replacements of things needing upgrades. That should be a regular budget item. I would guess this is just an excuse to get more tax dollars to play with. This city council and mayor are a joke, they should all apply for jobs in DC.

  9. Sorry I forgot to mention the ROBO call I got yesterday from the Dear Leader promoting his game. I have heard this is illegal but being an attorney I’m sure he wasn’t aware of the law.
    Please vote NO!!!!

  10. I vote NO. I have yet to find a friend who lives in the city limits that will vote yes. Not one penny more for this joke of a city government. There is so much waste already. Hey Mr. Mayor, clean up your own messes within the city departments and stop with all the darn wasted money! If you truly ran a lean, mean, machine I would vote yes in a heartbeat.

  11. Given all of the mailers that have come to my mailbox either the mayor is spending a lot of city money promoting the bond (sending city money to win) or someone is pumping a lot of cash in for him.

  12. Do the taxpayers of Boise know that the firefighters voted to opt out of social security last year? The firefighters and the BFD got their taxes back. Social Security was not taken away from the firefighters – they chose to not be a part of it. The city chose to give their taxes to the firefighters and will give them money for retirement instead of paying social security. The city could have used its money to offset or totally pay for the improvements. Dig into this and find out what happened. The employer could have kept the money but no, they gave it away and now they want us to give them more money? Not if my vote counts.

    EDITOR NOTE–You have a very good point, especially with the EMPLOYER MATCHING portion of the social security refund. While it may not cost the city any more than SS did, that refund of the employer match belongs to the citizens and it amounted to several million dollars.

  13. Saturday’s Statesman details donations: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/11/02/2846647/boise-bonds-campaign-attracts.html

    Anyone catch this? Gardner Co., developer of Zion’s Bank contributed. Didn’t they get a big concession from CCDC? If so, doesn’t that mean technically they’re spending taxpayer money to sway an election? How about they reimburse CCDC first before playing politics.

    Also, Republic Waste donated. Um, that’s technically taxpayer money too, because we have no choice for our garbage collection company. I guess we could refuse to pay the bill, but….

    I’m a lib and I’m voting no on the bonds.

    There are many other needs this city has. Esther Simplot Park and the Whitewater Park remain unfinished. Sidewalks are missing in many places in the north end and the rest of the city.

    Just this spring didn’t Parks and Rec cut spending in some parks by mowing less and not spraying for weeds? In other words, Parks and Rec budget is already razor thin.

    No one has even heard of the Department of Community Forestry but I’m betting their budget is razor thin too. People do know they don’t prune our big trees that we’re so proud of. Right?

    The Greenbelt has many sections which could use upgrading due to roughness or not being up to modern width standards.

  14. what does it matter if you vote no. As we have seen in Idaho, (ie the term limits) voting seldom has any impact on what our “leaders” do.

  15. The YES YES clueless folks have sent me FIVE big glossy postcards… each costs about a buck a piece to print and mail.

    So glad these folks are spending so much money to try and get me to vote to let them take some of mine.

    Meridian has a brand new fire training center, lease that.

    23% of Ada County land is publicly owned. We need MORE? Come off it.

    When you add the shiny new BOISE SCHOOLS levy of $70 million bucks to these two silly proposals, you’ve got $110 MILLION in new tax burden on Boise residents.

    Enough.

    Vote NO! NO!

  16. Taxes are Great as Long as Everybody Else is Paying Them!

    The daily newspaper doesn’t bother to cover how the Boise Axis of Incumbency raised your property taxes already and how TJ Thomson wants you to raise your taxes again so that he can spend your money. Now the democratic interests that want parks and open space are spending $217,000 to convince you of the mis-truth that the bonds will only cost you $1 per month. Yes, that’s for the next twenty years. And 36% of that is interest cost.

    They are perfectly happy to take your dollar and give you back 64 cents. Why do you think Jesus was angry at the money-changers.

    Makes you wonder how much playground equipment that $217,000 would buy, doesn’t it?

    The proponents say this bond election is a turning point. WHAT THEY MEAN IS THAT IF THEY CAN GET THE VOTERS TO APPROVE THIS, WITH MONEY THEY CAN GET YOU TO APPROVE ANYTHING.

    EDITOR NOTE–Jarocki is a candidate for council running against TJ Thomson. The GUARDIAN does not endorse candidates and welcomes comments from all readers.

  17. IT’S YOUR MONEY!

    Republic Services allegedly is returning $150,000 to the City of Boise after they gained efficiency by switching to natural gas.

    My incumbent opponent TJ Thomson says this was his idea.

    Well, guess what TJ? That money belongs to the ratepayers! You need to reduce their garbage pickup fees or give them a rebate.

    Or better yet, how much playground equipment would that buy TJ?

    EDITOR NOTE–Jarocki is a candidate for council running against TJ Thomson. The GUARDIAN does not endorse candidates and welcomes comments from all readers.

  18. Good points Bill Jarocki! I’m voting No! No! on the bonds and against the incumbents. I’ve had enough of the Bieter zombies!

  19. That’s correct – millions of dollars. The social security refund that the City received is the TAXPAYERS’ money. The firefighters are now not paying the 6.2% piece of FICA (but they have to pay medicare) and the City is contributing to the firefighters retirement accounts – nice raise firefighters! Remember, you CHOSE to opt out of social security. Why should the taxpayers continue to pay into another retirement fund for you? Would they do that for any other group of employees? The taxpayers lost the city’s refund and whatever the city is putting into the retirement accounts. By the way, I contacted our local media. No one will look into this.

  20. Mike,

    I received your postcard today. Unfortunately, I live in Garden City. Sorry you wasted a stamp even if you got a junk-mail discount.

    If I lived 600 feet away, I could vote No, too.

  21. Certainly there is nothing illegal with this action to benefit the firefighters. I’m sure the 50 members of the legal staff figured that out.
    But it IS unfair to then raise our property taxes AND then ask us to go (tax) ourselves with two bond issues. Don’t count on the daily newspaper to report any of it.
    If the city re-elects the incumbents, then Boiseans get the government they deserve.

  22. Brad:

    Thank you for the heads up. We will make sure any future mailings to Boise will not include your address. I’ve never found a perfect mailing list in the years I’ve done campaigns. But you and the others that support voting no can let all of their friends in Boise to vote NO on the bonds. The grassroots work is just as important, if not more so, as the postcards.

  23. Good on Mike Tracy and his direct mail effort to get his message directly to voters.

    TV and Newspaper media outlets typically have a love fest with agendas that will cost taxpayers more money. They don’t look at how much people already are forking over to city and county government and never say a word about the return or any savings to those paying for all this pie in the sky stuff.

  24. Nothing illegal was done in giving the city’s refund to the firefighters. However, contrary to what the city tells, the city was did not have to give its share of the refund to the firefighters. My point is, that refund could have been used for the improvement rather than asking the taxpayers for more money. Remember, city park maintenace was shut down because the funding wasn’t available according to the city. No or minimal raises because the funding wasn’t availabe according to the city. The city’s share of the refund was given quietly to the firefighters. Did you hear about it? Did you hear that the city will contribute to the firefighters’ 401K in place of social security? They CHOSE to not be in it. That’s an important point.

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