Riverbend Revenue Plan Draws Fire Proposed Financing Of Commerce Park Face Lift Ripped By Tax Watchdogs, Fire Commissioner

A plan to improve the area around the Riverbend Commerce Park amounts to taxation without representation, critics complained at a Tuesday meeting.

The Kootenai County Property Owners Association - a watchdog group intent on keeping property taxes down - echoed at least one fire district commissioner in lambasting the plan to improve the Riverbend area.

The property owners association says the mechanism for generating the $3.89 million for improvements - called tax increment financing - will increase taxes for everyone in the county who doesn’t live within the urban renewal district.

“I have no problem with what they’re doing; I have a problem with how they’re doing it,” said County Commissioner Ron Rankin, a member of the property owners association.

Because Rankin does not live in Post Falls, he cannot vote in Post Falls City Council races. But by approving tax increment financing, the Post Falls council has effectively increased his taxes, he said.

The Riverbend Urban Renewal District is an area the city has determined needs improvements, such as lights and sidewalks, to attract businesses. The mechanism the city is using to fund those improvements - tax increment financing - involves freezing the amount of taxes local taxing agencies receive from the district. Taxes in the district will continue to increase as the area becomes more developed, but that revenue will be used to pay off bonds for the improvements.

Because taxing agencies, such as the fire district, the county and the school systems, will need more revenue to serve the growing district, taxes for all those agencies will need to increase everywhere else, Rankin charged.

“It’s like a Ponzi scheme - you have to get more and more people paying for it,” he said.

But supporters of the financing say that won’t - and hasn’t - happened.

“I don’t think it’s going to increase taxes … that’s not what has happened with Harpers,” said Karen Streeter, city councilwoman and chairwoman of the Urban Renewal Commission.

Harpers, a furniture manufacturer in Post Falls, lies within the West Seltice Urban Renewal District.

Since the West Seltice Urban Renewal District began, taxes have actually gone down, Streeter said.

Furthermore, taxes the fire district and other agencies would collect would be frozen only while bonds were paid off - not necessarily for the life of the Riverbend Urban Renewal District, she said.

“Probably, the bonds will only run for four or five years. There’s little likelihood that they will have to wait 15 years (the life of the district),” she said.

Fire District Commissioner John Malloy would like the urban renewal commission to throw out the whole plan and start over, he said.

“The urban renewal agency expects the fire department to provide additional services for no additional revenue,” he said.

He said he might consider suggesting the fire district de-annex the Riverbend Urban Renewal District and perform fire protection services for the area on a contract basis instead.

While he conceded it’s unlikely he would do so, “it (the suggestion) is a point made to illustrate my sentiments on giving something for nothing,” he said.

“It’s important to me as a fire commissioner to keep that levy rate down for fire protection. We may be forced to increase that levy amount with tax increment financing.”

The public hearing Tuesday was meant to hear testimony on the plan before the commission seeks judicial confirmation to take out bonds. Representatives from the fire district had criticized it before, both for the amount of money the plan called for - which was lowered - and for the fact that the money will not help the fire district build a new station. The district serves 56 square miles with one station.

At the commission’s meeting Jan. 13, it will vote on whether to seek judicial confirmation.

“I’m assuming it probably will be (passed),” Streeter said.

, DataTimes