House OKs urban renewal ‘reform’

After killing it, and passing an urban renewal reform bill they’d endorsed earlier, the House adjourned around noon. The urban renewal bill, which emerged in part from the work of an interim legislative committee, allows the option of elections for local urban renewal boards; requires a 60 percent vote for urban renewal funds to be used for public buildings like city halls and libraries; and requires all urban renewal plans to be posted annually. It also specifies when modifications to plans should trigger a re-set of property values used for tax-increment financing; the bill, HB 606a, goes to Gov. Butch Otter/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise.