Once again the WHACK A MOLE game of trying to throw money at pop up targets is well underway in Boise. This time around it looms large Boise Urban Renewal may step up to home plate and throw $23.7 million of property taxpayer money at a new stadium for the Boise Hawks. Here is a section lifted from the article in the Idaho Statesman today:
"• Option 1: Urban renewal area — Tax increment financing — paying for public improvements by capturing the increase in property taxes that improvements generate — can be used within a designated urban renewal area such as Boise is considering creating around 30th Street .
Who approves it: The City Council would decide."
Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/11/14/1877941/search-for-boise-baseball-stadium.html#ixzz1dhnfnyNP
Mavens of the BETTER BOISE COALITION and no doubt baseball fans are trying to figure out how to download the cost of this project onto the backs of Boise property taxpayers. By way of a tax shift if this gets approved all Ada County property taxpayers will get stuck paying for this project. The smooth talk of TAX INCREMENT FINANCING has begun. Most taxpayers have no clue how urban renewal works and the good people at the BETTER BOISE COALITION will do nothing to help educate property owners in this matter.
The soft sell is this will be a "multi-sport complex. Is there a new foot ball venue in the works?
No vote of the people in this matter if Urban Renewal is used it will fall to the the Boise City Council to make the decision if urban renewal will be the financing instrument for this project. Voters countywide should be given the opportunity to make this decision, not a few baseball fans who want a new stadium.
I think MLB should pay their own way on the costs of a new stadium. Offer them the Industrial Revenue Bond approach but bottom line is play at the current field or not. I can't help but notice the empty stands in the current stadium does anyone think a newer bigger stadium will be any different? There are a lot of different directions the discretionary dollars for entertainment can be spent when we have good weather. Frankly, I would rather watch the grass grow or paint dry over watching a baseball game. The only sport with a 7th inning stretch for people in the stands.
ReplyDeleteTell them to come to Caldwell and use the state of the art field off linden and the Stock Trail.
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