LCDC The Truth

There has been a ton of negative propaganda against the Lake City Development Corporation, which is a chartered group that operates from tax increments. This simply means that if, in the case of Riverstone of which I have the most information, here are the facts.

The 2012 tax base, which is when tax rates are applied determines how much tax money is owed the county, was 3,052,000. Just a little over 3 million dollars. The land consisted of a former lumber mill, shut down. It also contained a large gravel pit which was also no longer in use, except perhaps by the Mosquitos that bred there.

The number of jobs that used to be in the area, were 5. Number of businesses, 1.

Amount of public money spent in Riverstone, zero. Now lets zip to the present.

First, the new tax base, created by the private development of Riverstone, also in 2012, is $95,000,000. 95 million dollars of tax base that did not exist before. That number is in the lexicon of Urban Renewal, is called tax increment, or the increased value that now can be taxed by the county.

Included in that development are 63 new businesses, 757 new jobs and 459 new residents living in the condos that were tastefully intertwined in the commercial community.

No public money was used to develop this project, just city owned roads and public improvements. Over 3 Million dollars has been paid to the city of Coeur d'Alene in fees along with a lake that was developed from the eye sore gravel pit that previously existed Twenty plus acres of Riverstone private property was donated to the city. That included the new park, and lake, improvement to Northwest Blvd and the prairie trail, a section of the Centennial Trail that borders the Spokane River and passes through Riverstone.

All URA funds were spent on   publicly owned ground and invested in the infrastructure of the city of Coeur d'Alene. $250 million dollars were invested privately to develop the project. For some unknown convoluted reasoning, a small group of anti-government people led by but not limited to such as Sims and Mayoral candidate, Souza seem to think this is Socialism. Since no public money is invested in Riverstone, and the tax base went from 3 million to 95 million, causing huge amounts of tax dollars to accrue to the city of Coeur d'Alene, I'm at a loss, and as a conservative believing in small businesses and private enterprise to see where this is anything close to a liberal project.

Building a community from tax dollars earned from these tax paying developers is the best of Conservative political principles.

Other projects that were made possible by Urban Renewal, are the Kroc Center, The Education corridor adjacent to North Idaho College, the prairie trail and the new public library. In many cases, the library is used by detractors of urban renewal for meetings they hold to stir up trouble. Seed money for the McEuen Park transformation was also provided by the Urban Renewal people.

I lived in Coeur d'Alene back in 1970-72 when the mills were down, the mines were down and people were leaving town in droves. Primarily driven by the Coeur d'Alene Resort, tourism has replaced many of those jobs which then a thriving community, attracted hundreds of small businesses.

So then, what we have are anti-growth, anti-government radicals trying to take over in this upcoming election, all of the huge advances our community has experienced. Not because the common sense candidates for Mayor and city council are not qualified, but because they do not toe the Anarchist line.

I urge you to vote for common sense candidates such as Widmyer for mayor and the other main stream candidates like Kiki Miller and other Balance Coeur d'Alene candidates that have been screened and interviewed as to their views for the future, not the route to yesterday. I read an account yesterday, of a drowning man saved by a fellow rafter. His name is Steve Widmyer. Perhaps Steve can save a city from the same fate.