Yes, I’m surprised that we have not yet heard from local, county and state bureaucracies claiming that they are broke due to all the costs incurred with the winter weather expenses.

Right on the money, Dave. Brian, that’s quite a statement. Obviously you aren’t aware of contingency plans and funds reserved by most agencies. No problem, most aren’t. At ACHD the funds for this winter’s emergency came out of such reserves.

ACHD will begin the budget process with a public meeting, likely in March. We are hopeful that you and many others will come out with constructive opinions and suggestions for us. I would certainly enjoy a visit with you on these matters.

Dave, you should come too.

The problem with any agency stating there is a lack of funding to meet their “needs” is that agencies are not challenged to orient their needs around funding realities. Why make I-84 wider from Nampa to Caldwell if the Idaho Transportation Department can’t afford to maintain the system it already has? Nothing says that what a computer model says is needed in 20 years for road capacity is what should automatically be accommodated. There’s nothing fiscally-conservative about that approach despite us having a region and state where everyone claims to be a fiscal conservative. Unfortunately, agencies like ITD fall victim to political posturing and a lust to have major ribbon-cutting projects rather than repairing potholes.

For schools, why should a school district continue to redesign sites to accommodate school design standards that make no account for life cycle costs when they can adjust their expectations to deal with the sites they have?

In both cases, it’s expansion of government liabilities without understanding what the true ability is to maintain what they have.

Mr Goldthorpe; I appreciate that you engage citizens directly on this site, regardless of how we might feel on certain positions, the direct interaction between our elected reps and citizens is important. Too many elected officials hide behind staff, committees, and formal comment processes to avoid direct engagement with the community they serve. In our modern and very busy world, this (commenting at night on-line) is all we can sometimes do and it is nice to be heard.

“Money grab” seems sensationalist since we are talking about bond elections.

CWI has put themselves in a bad position by their actions with the Boise campus. However the need to invest in our community college is real. Similarly for Boise School District. Have you seen how old, sad, and dilapidated many of the facilities in the district are?

It is well known that the legislature will short the education system in order to fight gay marriage, fight “ag-gag” lawsuits, waste millions on voided broadband contracts, etc. Since voters from across the state continually re-elect the same legislators it’s safe to say the approach is unlikely to change.

Ultimately the bonds are a local voter-driven decision to invest in our community when our elected state legislators choose not to do so in favor of neglect or frivolity. The results of ignoring the education system are well known and I disagree that running bond elections is a money grab. It is an opportunity to clearly communicate to our politicians what we value as a community, recognizing we do all have skin in the game.

Low tax bills do not create a great community; examples abound in the USA and beyond.

EDITOR NOTE–Zed we don’t disagree about the “need” for education. In the
case of Boise Schools, they are stacking the deck, much as campaigns in the East are alleged to keep minority voters from access to the polls. Boise Schools sent absentee ballots to their “friend list,” but not to folks who are likely to vote against the bond–perhaps any bond. CSI is simply clumsy in its politics. They spent big bucks on “consultants” and ran thinly disguised ads for their failed bond issue.

With regard to the legislature, approval of local bonds to “bail out” schools M & O (maintenance and operation) does nothing but give the legislature permission to ignore needy school districts. We have not seen good money saving plans like a set of one or two STANDARD blue prints for schools. They always claim the facilities have to be “site specific.”

Claims of “no tax hike” are simply false. If the bond fails, taxes will decrease. The TRUTH is, if the bond passes, every parcel of real estate in the District will have at least a 20 year debt load placed on it, regardless of who owns it in the future. That is the cost of education and to say there will be no tax hike (rate, levy, cost, etc.) is deceptive and would never pass muster under the “Truth in lending” act.

The GUARDIAN has no position on a YES or NO vote on the bond issue, but our position on informing ALL voters equally with unvarnished facts is nothing short of adamant.

Observation:
If as a result of fast growth (or more subdivisions), taxpayers have to pay more in taxes and/or bonds, to any agency, be it ACHD or school district, or name it, it means the taxpayers are subsidizing the profits that the developers reap while irresponsibly building too many dwellings where there are no roads and schools.
Ada County and Cities of Boise and Meridian are too blame for approving any development application they see (besides very little guys who I have seen being denied rezoning of a small commercial space).
County and City do not consider if the schools can deal with the influx of students, Boise School District, after all, is Independent.

There is no impact fee for dwellings which will raise the school population. The schools have to deal with it themselves when they get more enrollment. The legislature needs to fix this to allow a portion of impact fees going to school districts.

I have asked both KTVB and IdahoStatesman to cover and uncover this stealth election and the fuzzy math involved. Last I checked the Boise district was not really growing much and perhaps shrinking.

Governor and Legislators, please do away with the stealth election dates. Like the man says, once every two years in November. If people playing with $172,000,000 can’t plan two years ahead we are so screwed.