Spokane7
42°
When George Bacon, director of the state Department of Lands, made his budget presentation to lawmakers today, he was asked about the failed Tamarack Resort, which recently missed a $250,000 lease payment to the state for the state lands on which its ski runs lie. “They have, for the first time, missed their payment - it was for $250,000,” Bacon said. “That would put them into breach of lease and we could take … several different courses of action to try to rectify the breach. We don’t anticipate they’re going to be able to pay that money even if we send additional billings. So then we try to find someone else to run the ski resort, or we could latch onto a bond that has been posted to reclaim the site, and we could do everything in between from starting all over to trying to find someone to run it in its current condition.” There’s a complicating factor, however, Bacon said: That Tamarack is in federal bankruptcy court and in state court on receivership. “Our attorneys have advised us … we don’t have to do anything right now,” Bacon said. “This is all going to play out in the next few weeks.”
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daremo on February 03 at 1:58 p.m.
Wasn’t this entire deal tantamount to the State government getting into real estate speculation with foreign investors? Where was Otter’s idea of “small” government and accountability of government then? Seems like a good example of when government tries to behave like a for profit business, which it can’t and should not do. See the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) white paper that “Governments are fundamentally different from for-profit business enterprises…”
http://www.gasb.org/white_paper_mar_2006.html
GASB sets the financial standards which, I believe, every State of Idaho financial officer follows.
palousian on February 05 at 8:18 a.m.
This deal went down on Gov. Kempthorne’s watch, who just happens to have property in the area and who’s staff and adviser Scott Turlington wen through the revolving door to work for Tamarack soon after the state approved the deal.
daremo on February 09 at 9:10 a.m.
Ah, very true. Forgot Kempthorne’s State of the State address in 04.
Still, their ideaology pretty similar - certainly there has never been a reversal of that policy. and note:
item 13 - continued support for Tamarack Resort Lease M-5042 Authorization for Collateralization of Ski Lift
Financing
http://www.idl.idaho.gov/LandBoard/2007MinutesPDF/feb13_07finmin-web.pdf
or Boespflug still telling the Land Board the investment will payoff in http://www.idl.idaho.gov/LandBoard/2009MinutesPDF/may19_09finmin___approved_jun16_09.pdf
or 2006 - Idaho Legislature approves a law on behalf of Tamarack creating an exemption to the state’s liquor laws,
2008 - Gov. Otter signs a bill that grants Tamarack 12 liquor licenses.
and remember 2007 - April 27—Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter proclaims “Alfredo Miguel Afif Day” due to Afif’s “devotion to the cause of economic principles,” his “visionary leadership” and his “social humanitarian contributions.”