I have lived in very small towns in my life and also extremely large cities such as Seattle and Los Angeles (actually Long Beach, but who can tell where the boundaries lie) I live in Boise by choice because it offers the best of both worlds.

As for SkyWest, We will all probably benefit from the domino effect of the additional high paying jobs for Boise residents. It is too bad that cities have to compete for these types of developments, but that seems to be the nature of the beast.

We all know that you don’t want the city to grow. The city has been growing since gold was discovered in Idaho City, once the largest city in Idaho. The Indians were driven out to make room for the growth of the valley. (A blight on our history) No one has proposed driving you out to make room for growth, though one commenter did suggest you crawl under a rock.

I remember when I moved here nearly forty years ago. We actually have a choice of more then two good restaurants from which to choose, we don’t have to go to Portland or Salt Lake to shop (except for IKEA) and well known bands actually include us on worldwide tour schedules. I for one like it better, even if traffic can be sticky sometimes.

EDITOR NOTE–Steve, you are making this personal. You should punch the green button and reward me for defending the Idaho Constitution. Your airport now has a $23 million publicly owned building rented to SkyWest. Since it is owned by the city, the structure pays no taxes to the schools, ACHD, county, or the city. Citizens are getting screwed out of about $380,000 in taxes in perpetuity! That means while we will have to provide roads, schools, sewers, fire service, parks, etc. for the new workers, yet their arrival yields NOTHING. Even the state of Idaho will give back $15-25% of the payroll tax the workers pay. That comes directly out of your pocket Steve.

EDITOR NOTE–Steve, there a bunch of issues here. ALL the money you discuss is PUBLIC money. The source of revenue is not at issue. A GBAD board in 2015 does not have the right to obligate debt payments to the GBAD board of 2025. Only the citizens can grant that permission. Further, something as “profound” as a $23 million facility using local PUBLIC funds should be overseen by voters. You are opposed to at least four court orders including the 5 judges of the Idaho Supreme court and 3 District judges. They ALL conclude the constitution MANDATES citizens have the right to vote on public debt. Your best argument is to simply not vote rather than deny others their constitutional right to vote.

The fact is that GBAD knows they have – and would likely loose – yet another vote. So ANY attempt with any court is a clear and conscience effort to not only go around every voter in the district but an attempt to use smooth talking lawyers to hornswoggle a limp spindled judge.

As a dedicated growthophobe I see only folly in a growth based economy.

More people need more facilities and services which require higher taxes. More people mean more traffic, crime and diminished quality of life

In summary, growth sucks!