<div>Taxpayers in Moscow and Latah County should be asking the same questions. The Moscow Urban Renewal Agency is doing the same thing by funding Legacy Crossing from the Alturas revenue allocation area, thereby withholding tax reductions to citizens. The Moscow URA could easily return $300,000 annually to reduce property tax assessments in Moscow and all of Latah County. Instead, the Moscow URA uses the money for "administration" with nothing tangible to show for it. At least the Lewiston URA is using the money for projects that may eventually benefit taxpayers.</div>
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<div>Also note that the Lewiston URA meets at noon. The Moscow URA meets at 7:00 AM and strongly limits citizen input. Is this by design?</div>
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<div>B. J. Swanson</div>
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<div><img src="http://www.lmtribune.com/templates/default/images/logo.jpg"><br>
<h1>Assessor questions Urban Renewal Agency loan</h1>
<h2>Nez Perce County official believes Lewiston agency may have erred when it delayed paying off bonds so it could loan money from two allocation areas to a third</h2>
<p>By Sandra L. Lee of the Tribune<br>May 10, 2009</p>
<p>A decision by the Lewiston Urban Renewal Agency to loan money from two of its revenue allocation areas to a third violates the letter and the spirit of the plan on which the agency was created, Nez Perce County Assessor Daniel J. Anderson says.</p>
<p>"I believe that is absolutely contrary to the plan that the (Lewiston) city council approved and contrary to promises made by the city," Anderson said.</p>
<p>Property tax money in the North Lewiston revenue allocation area is earmarked to pay back about $1.2 million in bonds that were sold to reconstruct the water system on the east side of U.S. Highway 12. </p>
<p>Delaying paying off those bonds by using all the tax increment revenue somewhere else, except for enough to make the minimum payment, delays putting the assessed valuation back on the property tax rolls. "Which delays the lowering of levies and resulting property taxes to all property taxpayers," Anderson said.</p>
<p>He saw a bumper sticker that said, "It's only kinky the first time," Anderson said, and his fear is that in four years when the city is ready to do a $15 million reconstruction of Main and D streets, money will be drained from the other two areas for that.</p>
<p>The way revenue allocation areas and tax increment financing works is an area is set aside and the property values on a certain date become the base. Any increases because of new construction or changes in market value become part of the tax increment, and property taxes levied on that portion of the value are set aside for projects intended to aid economic development inside a specific part of the revenue allocation area.</p>
<p>In North Lewiston, that was reconstruction of a part of the water system. The property taxes from development such as the new Tyler-Kelly car dealership are going into that fund.</p>
<p>In downtown, a parking study was paid for from tax-increment funds, but no bonds have been sold.</p>
<p>At the Port of Lewiston Business and Technology Park, money will be borrowed from those two areas to help pay for a street, sidewalk and underground utilities.</p>
<p>The effect on taxpayers is obvious, Anderson said, when the base value in each of the three revenue allocation areas is compared with the increment value, the amount that values have gone up since January 2005, the starting point for revenue allocations.</p>
<p>The base value in North Lewiston is $49.77 million and the increment value is $18.6 million, according to figures provided by the assessor's office. In rough figures, that's about 27 percent of the property tax dollars in that area being pulled out of the county's overall revenue stream.</p>
<p>The base value actually has gone down since 2005 by about $840,000. That happens because of things like the old George's Restaurant being torn down, Anderson said. The old building came out of the base; the new restaurant went into the increment value.</p>
<p>In the downtown area the base is $41.14 million and the increment is $16.8 million, although that will drop about $4.5 million because of the transfer of ownership of the Clearwater Hall building at Fifth and Main streets from a private company to Lewis-Clark State College. After that, the reduced amount still will be more than 23 percent of the value.</p>
<p>In the Nez Perce Terrace area where the Business and Technology Park is located, a new round of construction was just starting when the revenue allocation areas were created. That set the base that includes the Safeway and adjacent stores and Home Depot at $11.9 million, but the increment is another $7.87 million, almost 40 percent of the total value in that area.</p>
<p>The total taxes, plus interest, allocated to urban renewal use in the five months between November and March was $439,085, according to the county treasurer's office. </p>
<p>Using the excess money in one area to invest in another is a philosophical and policy decision that is up to the agency board, City Attorney Don L. Roberts said. The law requires that money generated in one area be used there, and not a dollar will be expended in one of the others, he said.</p>
<p>"We're simply investing the money from downtown and North Lewiston into the project and it will be completely repaid." The agency also will pay 4.5 percent interest on the money, which is higher than if the money was left in the bank, Roberts said, and it is reducing the overall costs of financing the work.</p>
<p>The bond attorney hired by the board, Rick Skinner of Boise, wanted a provision in the agreement that if the money was needed in the area in which it originated, immediate repayment could be demanded, Roberts said. </p>
<p>It is true, he said, that it would be the agency board demanding repayment from itself, but interfund transfers then can be arranged.</p>
<p>The total loan from the two areas will be about $500,000. The project itself is about $806,000, with $200,000 coming from property taxes accumulated in that revenue allocation area plus $100,000 from the port.</p>
<p>Anderson said it's possible his concerns could be addressed by rewriting the plan that governs what the agency can do with the money. That requires public notice and hearings by the city council and agency board.</p>
<p>But his concern remains that the decisions being made are increasing taxes across the county.</p>
<p>"I believe those of us who are elected or in hired positions to watch taxpayer dollars, we have two things at the end of the day: Our word and our credibility. And I think to stray from this plan, compromises both."</p>
<p>The agency board's next meeting is noon Tuesday at city hall.</p>
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<p>Lee may be contacted at <a href="mailto:slee@lmtribune.com">slee@lmtribune.com</a> or (208) 848-2266.</p></div>