Boise Mayor Dave Bieter has successfully pushed the concept of a downtown Boise streetcar, consisting of 2.6 miles of in-ground rails, with a total project cost of about $60 million for just this first phase. He hasn\u2019t gotten the project very far, yet, though. <\/p>\n
On Monday, members of the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho (COMPASS) Board voted 13 to nine in favor of supporting a list of projects to recommend for federal \u201cstimulus\u201d funding. Included among the three local projects was a $40 million request for the \u201cDowntown Boise Circulator.\u201d If the federal government approves the $40 million in funding for this project, it is unclear to me where the funding for the additional $20 to $25 million project cost will be obtained. <\/p>\n
According to Boise City\u2019s Urban Renewal Agency Executive Director Phil Kushlan, approving this project and spending this $40 million is an, \u201cimportant first step toward accessing further federal resources.\u201d Mayor Bieter touts the potential economic benefit of the project. He claims that a fixed-rail system will bring development to the downtown core, along the system. <\/p>\n
I view the streetcar proposal, Idaho\u2019s version of Alaska\u2019s Bridge to Nowhere, as a shockingly expensive project with no guarantee of any significant benefit to the taxpaying public. Even if most of the dollars come \u201cfree\u201d from the feds it is irresponsible, at best, to push for this expenditure. Can you imagine how much better off taxpayers would be if the $40 million simply remained in our pockets and bank accounts, instead of us being indebted for projects such as this one, by the federal government?<\/p>\n
Also shocking was the announcement at the COMPASS meeting that all four members of our Idaho delegation in D.C. are supporting this expenditure. <\/p>\n
I asked for a roll call vote of the Board, the results of which look something like this:<\/p>\n
Supporters of the motion to approve the project list:<\/p>\n
Kathy Alder \u2013 Canyon County Commissioner
David Bieter \u2013 Boise Mayor
Keith Bird \u2013 Meridian City Councilor
Vern Bisterfeldt \u2013 Boise City Councilor
Elaine Clegg \u2013 Boise City Councilor
Tom Dale \u2013 Nampa Mayor
Charlie Rountree, sitting in for Tammy DeWeerd \u2013 Meridian Mayor
John Evans \u2013 Garden City Mayor
Kelli Fairless \u2013 Valley Regional Transit Executive Director
David Ferdinand \u2013 Canyon County Commissioner
Phil Kushlan \u2013 Capital City Development Corporation Executive Director
Garrett Nancolas \u2013 Caldwell Mayor
Mike Vuittonet \u2013 Meridian School District Trustee<\/p>\n
Opponents of the motion to approve the project list:<\/p>\n
Sherry Huber \u2013 Ada County Highway District Commissioner
Carol McKee \u2013 Ada County Highway District Commissioner
Bryce Millar \u2013 Nampa Highway District #1 Commissioner
Nathan Mitchell \u2013 Star Mayor
Steve Rule \u2013 Canyon County Commissioner
Jerome Scroggins \u2013 Canyon County Highway District #4 Commissioner
Martin Thorne \u2013 Nampa City Councilor
Fred Tilman \u2013 Ada County Commissioner
Sharon Ullman \u2013 Ada County Commissioner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boise Mayor Dave Bieter has successfully pushed the concept of a downtown Boise streetcar, consisting of 2.6 miles of in-ground rails, with a total project cost of about $60 million for just this first phase. He hasn\u2019t gotten the project very far, yet, though. On Monday, members of the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharonu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}