Comments on: Legislator Targets Urban Renewal Boards

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:10:28 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. I’m still unsure of something! If the CCDC builds a parking garage in downtown next to existing Boise Cascade building ARE BOTH FACILITIES INCREMENTAL INCREASED VALUE’S DIVERTED TO THE CCDC?

EDITOR NOTE–If CCDC owns something it is tax exempt.

By: what a cryin' shame

what a cryin' shame — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 16:03:22 +0000

Let’s do that. Let’s dissolve CCDC. Or, lets require public votes to form districts. The numbers presented by Sunsetting above are startling. They show that the size of the districts have gone well beyond the intent of reducing blight, to being a full blow tax entity, with no oversight.

Lower taxes for the homeowners.

By: Sunsetting of an URD

Sunsetting of an URD — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 18:21:07 +0000

Frank: No “sunset clause” for CCDC as an entity. The sunset clause applies to the actual Urban Renewal District (URD), so that it cannot go on forever. Originally an URD could be 30 years and was later changed (?), to either 20 or 25, as I have seen both time periods attached to designated URD areas.

URDs do not create areas that do not pay taxes, rather, they create designated areas where any incremental increase in tax value is scrapped off the top and given to CCDC to spend as they please in the URD area it was collected from. Over a 20-25 year URD period, this can result in the incremental amount of tax being scrapped off for CCDC to use, being almost as much as original baseline amount of tax that is distributed to the various taxing districts.

Here Is An Example Using Only Boise City Tax Levy For 2019:

Approximation for a 0.890 acre parcel of land in downtown Boise in the designated Westside URD.

$3476 – tax received by Boise on $610,000 base value (the value of the parcel at time URD was created in 2001).

$2562 – tax received by CCDC/URD for $449,700 incremental increased value (this is the amount the parcel has increased in value since 2001).

This Westside URD still has 7 years to go until “sunsetting” in 2026, and at the current pattern of escalating assessed property values, it is highly likely the CCDC/URD incremental tax amount will be equal to, or even surpass, the amount that Boise receives.

This outcome is one of the contributing factors causing Boise to take the 3% budget increase each year, as they are receiving less and less tax each year due to it being redistributed to the CCDC, leaving the general public to subsidize growth.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 16:50:07 +0000

I thought there was a sunset clause associated with the CCDC?
Doesn’t the CCDC create areas of the city that don’t participate in paying property tax to the taxing districts?
If you reside in the treasure valley when you add all state, county, city properties, churches, hospitals, parks, (BFD local unions building?) to URBAN RENEWAL, (CCDC) you can see how property owners are over burdened?
City protection services don’t know the difference between a fire at BSU or your house?
Maybe tax exempt properties in the treasure valley need to pay for some taxing distinct services!
Let’s take the training wheels off Boise.

By: Voter

Voter — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 05:49:57 +0000

Please just repeal all urban renewal authority and dissolve them all.

By: XX

XX — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 03:16:41 +0000

Unelected persons making the decisions to spend from the public purse – that is the bottom line problem.

This entity began spending (using bond funding) on the mega-library before the project was revealed to the majority of the genreal public who would be on the hook to pay for it.

By: Forced Air

Forced Air — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 16:20:29 +0000

Not unlike the revolving door consultant in industry and government circles. We see this everywhere.

CCDC (or CCCP?)

It’s like a mini Deep State in our midst. Unaccountable and quasi secret. They plan and scheme and then forward their plots to elected officials that sell them to the public as “progressive.”

Eisenhower warned us of the Military Industrial Complex. We have here a Urban Socialization Complex. These guys can dictate everything down to what kind of plant you can have on your commercial property. It’s total Politburo stuff. Every single facet of your shopping center, as an example, is prescribed by these planners.

Just wait until they really get ambitious and bring in pure “wokeness” experts to dictate signage and profiling of businesses.