Team Dave and its leader, Mayor Dave Bieter are trying to sell the idea of “saving interest fees†by simply inserting $50 million cash for the proposed mega-library project. This after several years of economic schemes, projections, and sales pitches.
If Boise has $50,000,000 stashed away in a slush fund, we the people have been overtaxed.
We really hesitate to be this harsh, but Team Dave cannot be trusted. They are touting a plan to eliminate confusion over “voting to vote†following the successful petition drive by citizens seeking a voice in their government. The “cash scheme†may save up to $15 million in interest on an $85 million edifice, but it will also ELIMINATE CITIZEN APPROVAL of the project at an election.
Citizens need to be careful of the wording in any ordinance. Sometimes insertion or deletion of a single word tips the authority away from the citizens. Team Dave has repeatedly used public money to manipulate public opinion on street cars, airport tax exemptions, the library, the F-35, and other issues. Trust in a “public dialogue†has evaporated. Bieter is still spending to attract noisy F-35 fighters to Boise.
A GUARDIAN reader offers up this chronology of events regarding the library.
To get to a vote we have seen:
–A price tag that blew up from a $40 million remodel to a $103 million monstrosity.
–Plans to issue bonds through CCDC before the majority of the public saw the architects rendering/model.
–The dismisal of history – The Cabin. But the library minutes (4/4/18) show they will be able to save 2 light fixtures from the existing building. Great trade-off.
–First class airfare and other extravagant charges for the overpriced architect.
–A 40-year lease on the Biomark building site that was originally purchased for library expansion.
–The Civic Center For Education & Culture was scrubbed from the record and renamed “a library project.†A consultant was hired to promote it.
–The price tag has been lowered to $85 million, although most realize this lower price simply means defering some of the components of this project.
–Impacts on the nearby Anne Frank Memorial.
–Consultant fees and branding campaigns paid for with public monies to sell this idea to the audience who paid most of the public monies in the first place.
–Boise leaders signed a contract with an architect not licensed in Idaho who was fined by the state.
–The City has dropped the idea of using CCDC as the lease financing conduit, as a result of citizen outrage leading to HB 217. Now they seek to avert an election by paying cash.
–Now we read that the City has piles of cash stashed away – yet we lag on hiring the police we need, build the fire stations, expand the existing library hours, etc.
–We are now being sold the idea that we will save money by not paying $15 million in financing fees and interest by not using lease financing. This is the hidden cost that has only been recently revealed.
–City economists are projecting a downturn in the economy in the coming months – shown in library meeting minutes and city budget docs/presentations, but the insanity continues.
Meanwhile: City of Boise, please stop this insanity! We are not fooled.