County
Simplot JUMP Gets $1 million Tax Break
April 12, 2016 
JUMP DURING CONSTRUCTION IN 2015
The Ada Commishes acting as the County Board of Equalization, has lost a battle for more than $1 million in property taxes on the nearly completed J.R. Simplot JUMP Project in downtown Boise.
JUMP is the acronym for “Jack’s Urban Meeting Place.” The $62.5 million building and surrounding land is owned by the J.R. Simplot Foundation. Ada County claimed the structure did not qualify for a charitable tax exemption because it was under construction and not being used exclusively for charitable purposes. They reduced the value of the project to $40,000,000 for tax purposes, but the appeal granted TOTAL exemption.
The Simplot organization filed an appeal with the State Board of Tax Appeals. In the appeal JUMP said they conducted multiple tours of the facility during 2015, allowed BSU engineering classes to visit during construction for educational purposes and otherwise qualified for the exempt status. The State Board agreed, calling both the facility and the use during construction “unique.”
The decision will affect not only the loss of tax revenue to local governments, but the basis for calculating urban renewal funds and local budget increases.
The facility will provide space for artists of all kinds to ply their craft and display their works.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 12, 2016, 4:27 pm
WTF! It seems like the state doesn’t want Jack’s house and now the city/county would rather have a one-time million in spite of a $62 million landmark for the community.
Apr 12, 2016, 4:38 pm
Non-profits are clearly a tax avoidance scam. It’s far bigger than hiding money offshore. Even our hospital and church status is a shield for the truckloads of gold they collect for the few dozen fat cats at the top.
Have been to a board room meetings? Have you been to the Vatican? Does it look like they should be tax free?
Apr 12, 2016, 6:53 pm
JUMP,
St Lukes
St Als
BSU
CWI
UofI
Churches
YMCA
Who is going to pay all those property taxes not being paid by the giant “nonprofits”?
Oh yeah….
Apr 12, 2016, 7:32 pm
The JUMP Center should be taxed just based on how ugly it is, and what a massive waste of resources it represents. They could have built a structure with 10 times the interior square footage with all the concrete and steel they used. It looks like 20 different buildings were somehow fused together in a totally random pattern. A builder friend thinks flat roofs will all be riddled with leaks. Makes me wonder if the designer was on acid when he conceived the idea…
Apr 12, 2016, 7:55 pm
the designer was a ‘she’.
Apr 12, 2016, 11:29 pm
Not willing to trash on the JUMP building. At least they didn’t scam a way for the city to pay for construction too… and it looks a lot like many museums do… which is what it is… It’s a museum of Jack’s life. Idaho was a great State once upon a time because of about a dozen big men like JR Simplot. (But gotta tax all but the community service side of it for sure.)
Apr 13, 2016, 7:19 am
Short sighted on part of Ada County. The incompetency of the current commission continues to rear its ugly head. It’s time for the corrupt “leaders” of this county to move along. Especially tea party backed Case.
Apr 13, 2016, 11:02 am
I took one of those tours and it seemed like a fantasy sci-fi prop for a new movie set. Planet of the Shapes might be the theme here. I have no idea how well the ostensible incubation concept will work to providing jobs in a world where the FED and banks are ZIRPing and NIRPing us into debt oblivion. There is no more REAL economy if we just see borrowed money being recycled thought the stock market over and over again. Wages are stagnant and growth is crawling or nil for most. Several friends of mine have closed or are closing their small businesses this year. The Aura of the Digital Machine is where immaterial wealth is being created, based on the pretext that we can all eat 1s and 0s for our daily bread. Something real must represent wealth. I don’t see it.
Apr 13, 2016, 2:33 pm
I assume this is for just the JUMP building and the parking garage attached to it.
-Will the headquarters next door and the parking garage underneath the outdoor plaza be subject to taxes?
-Are there two parcels of land – one for the foundation and one for corp?
-How much of that $1M would of gone to CCDC vs. tax districts?
Seems this could be similar to the YMCA recent property tax question.
In other news….Simplot is linked to the Panama Papers. It may be under “legal” purposes as it was for a business in Indonesia and a partner in Austrailia.
EDITOR NOTE–The tax break is ONLY for the JUMP project. The underground parking is a “condominiumized” parcel and is subject to tax. Since the project is within the urban renewal district, the tax on the value of the building would have been diverted to CCDC. The original land value would have been the “base” and the improvements would be the “increment” (lowered to $40 million from $62 million by the Ada BOE). The State Board of Tax Appeals exempted the entire value. We are unaware of any of the Panama Papers.
Apr 15, 2016, 6:09 pm
Sharon Ullman for Ada County Commissioner signs popping up everywhere, maybe she’ll save us!
Apr 15, 2016, 10:05 pm
Just one more sleight of hand by the good people at Simplot. Once again they prove they are the smartest people in the room. Just another tax shift onto the backs of the homeowners in Boise and Ada County.
Apr 17, 2016, 8:52 am
Response to Flyhead. It is not a tax shift if the property is never assessed or taxed. A shift only occurs when a taxable property becomes exempt, then the original value and the taxes remain in the base.