County
Ada Commishes’ “YES, NO, MAYBE,” Becomes Unanimous NO!
July 24, 2018 
At the regular Tuesday Ada Commish business meeting all three commishes agreed to forgo the forgone taxing proposal which resulted in a three way split last week.
Jim Tibbs, and outgoing Commish Dave Case apparently caved to the public pressure to NOT add $3 million to the tax bill for a court room upgrade and purchase of land for jail expansion. At the previous meeting Tibbs favored using the forgone taxing authority, Visser opposed it, and Case was undecided.
Clerk Chris Rich told the GUARDIAN there was room within the current $282 million budget to add the new court room, but audio-visual upgrades would have to wait as well as the land purchase near the existing jail.
With all the growth and increased property values the new budget is $30 million higher than last year’s. That reflects a 13% increase overall. Budget increases are limited to 3% plus the value of new construction.
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Comments & Discussion
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Jul 25, 2018, 12:36 pm
A cop who voted against more courts and jails is worried for his seat. What is the likely mix on the next commission editor?
EDITOR NOTE–Good chance you will see Rick Visser and two women on the board next year.
Jul 26, 2018, 10:47 am
The ability to claw back and take the foregone taxes should be restricted to verifiable emergencies, i.e. major infrastructure failures or pursuant to a court order.
During the downturn in 2009 many local gov’t brayed like donkeys that they were not taking the 3% bump, then snuck back in and took the foregone when budgets got tight I don’t fault their decisions, just the braying up front for political purposes.
Jul 26, 2018, 2:05 pm
Stealth Taxes.
Trash, Sewer, Water fees now adds up to be more than yearly property taxes. Unfortunately pointing this out will result in elected officials raising property taxes to exceed them once again.
Road taxes, fuel tax, sales taxes, use tax, phone tax, power tax, license tax, permit tax, pet tax, payroll tax, income tax. — I’m sure I missed several. (slur name deleted) said last week “50% is not enough”. We are already way past 50% so I’m not sure why everyone got upset with her.
I see Boise charges a fee for the public to use the public pools they have already paid for through property taxes. Many many examples of this kind of double charging at federal state local levels.
Jul 26, 2018, 3:26 pm
Ullman’s candidacy is another bad outcome of growth. I think that with the growth, many don’t know her history. Can you spell Dynamis?
Jul 28, 2018, 8:52 am
Agree with the editor. I highly suspect we will see two women on the Commission this election, and one won’t be Ullman. Kendra Kenyon is a thoughtful and well informed. I predict she will prevail over Ullman.