Not Quite "Breaking" News: Weber County Hires Consultant to Explore Tax Funding for Powder Mountain Development

Tax increment "pro-corporatist" funding redux; or a good idea?

At the gentle urging of yet another sharp-eyed WCF reader who, as an added bonus, actually resides in Ogden Valley, we'll shine the spotlight on a possibly troubling Salt Lake Tribune story that's now been simmering on our discussion-queue "back-burner" for the past week or so.  On the heels of the Weber County Commission's March 26 decision to issue a $22.5 million assessment bond to fund public road, water and sewer improvements in and around the Summit Group's 1500 acre Powder Mountain property, and in the wake of recently "touchy" relations between that invester/developer group and certain Eden residents stemming from "a little too much alleged hard partying" in a formerly quiet Eden residential neighborhood, here's the 5/10/13 Cathy McKitrick story that's providing our Gentle Reader (and a few other Ogden Valley residents) the most recent added heartburn:

• Weber County hires consultant to explore tax funding for Powder Mountain development

In short, the wonderful  Ms. McKitrick reports that The Weber County Commission "hired" a private consultant on or about May 7 of this year, to look into the prospect of establishing a Community Development Area (CDA), floating a possible bond, and then (of course) flooding the Powder Mountain area with millions of taxpayer dollars to be directed toward additional development capital, all to be repaid via former Ogden Mayor Boss Godfrey's bestest friend,  tax-increment finance funding.

Although Ogden City residents have again become very recently familiar with the the inherent perils of even at least ostensibly well-intended tax increment financing schemes, here's a fairly decent Wikipedia mini-treatise for those WCF readers who might not be suitably "edumacated" on the subject:

• Tax increment financing

That's it for now, folks.  Suffice it to say we'll be checking up on this weirdly and potentially proto-corporo-fascist story as it develops.

So what about you, O Gentle Ones? Insofar as this story has developed, do you see any "red" flags?

Or alternatively... is this a good idea?

Deseret News: Salt Lake City School Board Considering Property Tax Increase

Howbout a probably modest tax increase that would inure to the benefit of ALL Ogden City school-kids? 

Impeccable logic

Interesting story from the Deseret News, reporting that "the Salt Lake City School Board is considering (horror of horrors) a property tax increase that would cost homeowners an additional $12.65 per year on a $100,000 home. District business administrator Janet Roberts presented the proposal to members of the board during its meeting last week. The tax increase would raise $3.6 million for the district," according to  D-News reporter Benjamin Wood's 5/17/13 writeup, wherein the financial difficulties of our own Ogden City schools are also mentioned:

• Salt Lake City School Board considering property tax increase

Faced with a variety of projected revenue reductions and looming budget shortfalls, the Salt Lake City School Board appears to be approaching its budgetary problems in a straightforward and "mature" manner, or so it seems to us. There's a good reason that Utah law vests school districts with taxing authority. The "grownups" of our Ogden City School District's southerly-situated Salt Lake City counterpart seem be at least willing to consider using it. So what's up with the Ogden School Board, we ask?

All gold @ OHS ('cept for the paint)

The Ogden School District is already poised to gauge pubic interest in a tax increase to continue the "education-mission inessential" operation of the Ben Lomond and Ogden High pools. So rather than taking the drastic step of simply "gutting" "essential educational resources" in our Ogden City Schools, why hasn't our local school board put a similar tax-increase measure on the table to ensure continuation of the highest possible continued educational opportunities for Ogden school-kids?  Has anyone within the Ogden School District even bothered to "run" the numbers on such a measure?  Has our Ogden School District's arguably gross and incompetent past financial mismanagement so deeply "dug in" within our Ogden school system as to create an irretrievable circumstance whereby the OSD's problems can't be cured even by a Salt Lake School District-style tax rate fix?

So how about it folks?  We already know that Ogden City lumpencitizens will "dig deep" in the support of gold-plated auditoriums, so what would you say about "chipping in" to a probably modest tax increase that would inure to the benefit of ALL Ogden City school-kids? 

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah GOP Again Rejects Reforms to Nomination Process

Thousands of Republican faithful reject candidate-selection reforms, install first "loan shark" leader in history

The Salt Lake Tribune this morning provides the latest news regarding the results of Saturday's Utah State Republican Party Convention, where a staunch 55% of "nearly 2600" Utah GOP convention delegates among other things, drew a line in the stand, refused to "cave to threats," and "passed up" the golden opportunity to usher the Utah GOP's nominating process (albeit kicking and screaming), straight into the the 21st Century:

The Utah Republican Party again rejected a series of reforms to the party’s nominating process in a move that could trigger a threatened ballot initiative to overhaul the system for picking candidates.
Count My Vote, a group made up of several prominent Republicans, including former Gov. Mike Leavitt, argued the current system puts too much power in the hands of a small group of delegates, depresses turnout and leads to radicalization of Utah politics.
The group had said if changes weren’t made, it would push for a ballot initiative — likely by gathering signatures on a petition — that would give candidates an alternative to going through the delegate process to get into a primary election.
At the Utah Republican Party State Convention on Saturday, GOP loyalists once again rejected any reform proposals, in particular a measure that would have required a candidate to get more than two-thirds of the delegate vote to avoid a primary.

Read up, folks:

• Utah GOP again rejects reforms to nomination process

Looks like Count My Vote is already geared-up to move forward  with their threatened citizen initiative petition drive. "Count My Vote leaders will meet Monday to discuss their next step," says CMV spokesman Rich McKeown. For more information on this Utah GOP-insurgent group, check out their website, which is already up and running:

• Count My Vote Utah

And as a possible indicator of just how "serious" this battle has become, check out this Count My Vote Utah "spoof" website:

• Count My Vote Spoof Website

Yep.  Utah GOP nominating process reform opponents are "pulling out all the stops."

We'll be standing by awaiting news of the inevitable petition drive of course, folks.  When the petitions are available for distribution and your eager signatures, our ever-gentle WCF Readers will certainly be the first to know.

Utah's new "State Fish?"

In another mind-boggling 2013 convention wrinkle, Saturday's assembled Utah GOP delegate throng also took the unprecedented step of handing over the reins of Utah's ruling political party (no we are not making this up) to a prominent Utah loan shark.  Yup.  That's right.  Not only is newly-elected Utah GOP State Party Chair James Evans "the first African-American to serve in the position," but he's also the proud owner and proprietor of Utah's "Checkline chain of payday lending stores," thereby prompting one sharp and alert Trib reader/commenter to query whether "republicans [might] want to make [the] loanshark the state fish."

Those were the convention "high-points," O Gentle Ones.

Or perhaps we should label them the low-points? 

Big Meetin' Tonite - Save Our Librarians! - Updated

If you can't make the meeting, at least call your School Board Reps

Important notice concerning the ongoing Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre", which we received just a couple of minutes ago via the Weber County Democrats:

Save our Librarians! Come to the open board meeting of the Ogden City School Board tonight! Details below...

The school board meeting will be held at the district offices on Monroe tonight (Thursday 5/16/13) at 6 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend and wear our stickers that say "The library is a classroom."

Please call your School Board Representative and share with them your concerns. They are the ones who can change the outcome of this by rejecting the proposed budget. Steve Marker is the only one so far who has committed to doing that.

Here are their phone numbers:

Precinct 1 - Don Belnap - 801-392-7002
Precinct 2 - Steve Marker - 801-510-1946 (has already agreed to vote no)
Precinct 3 - Jennifer Zundel - 801-782-1918
Precinct 4 - Jeffrey Heiner - 801-621-8426
Precinct 5 - Shane Story - 801-621-0018
Precinct 6 - Jeff Harris - 801-394-2161
Precinct 7 - Joyce Wilson - 801-394-3267

Show up in force, folks; but please... remember to mind your "manners."

We don't wanna see any of tonight's meeting attendees have to be forced to make an "emergency" call to our old buddy "Eddie" after all... if you know what we mean, and we think you do...

Comments anyone?

Feelin' the Heat

Update 5/17/13 8:00 a.m.:   Yep.  Just like clockwork, the Standard's Nancy Van Valkenburg is front and center this morning with a post meeting story, reporting about how a standing-room only crowd hammered our OSD Board and District Superintendent over the  Ogden School District Media Specialist/librarian "Massacre" the Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," and the "OSD Reading Coach kill-off". Adding fuel to the fire, Ms. Van Valkenburg further reports that, surprize of surprizes, there were even a "few" steely-eyed Ogden City lumpencitizens calling for Superintendent Smith's head... on a plate:

• Ogden School Board faces anger over cutbacks

Imagine that.

As an added bonus the Standard provides this butt-kickin' video "special," "capturing the moment in time" for posterity:

Standard.net Video Player

Gotta hand it to the Standard. When they're good, they're very good pretty danged excellent!

Happy Birthday to All of Us: 8-Year WCF Anniversary Party

It's party time at Weber County Forum!

Strap on your party hats and crank up the music folks...

(56 in "Dog" Years)

We're happy to announce that Weber County Forum celebrates its Eighth Birthday today, O Gentle Ones. And upon reaching that mind-boggling milestone, we'd like to reach out to our entire WCF community to thank everyone for their support and contributions over the years.  Without your unflagging online participation since our initial post in 2005, we couldn't have become what we are today... the most robust community blog in the whole danged blogosphere!

During the course of our existence we've definitely made our mark.  We've spoken truth to power. We've knocked down harebrained schemes and budget-busting projects one after another.  We've covered local and state elections at a depth, pace and level of irreverence un-exceeded by anyone. We've deeply dissected issues and stories that even our own home-town newspaper tiptoed around, inexplicably ignored or wouldn't even touch with a ten-foot pole. And in the process we've also had plenty of fun, of course... and yet we've done so much more.  All-in-all, it's been a pretty great ride so far.

But we're certainly not yet done. As we now embark upon our ninth year of stirring the political pot,  there's still plenty of government corruption, bureaucratic malfeasance and plain old-fashioned incompetence left to be exposed and discussed. And yes; knowing more than a little bit about Utah politics, as we do, we also have a funny "sinking" feeling that there's much more to come.

So once again we'd like to offer our ever-humble thanks to each and every one of  you whose loyal support, readership and contributions of ALL kinds we've enjoyed over these past eight years. And as we look forward to the future, we'll thank you in advance for continuing to stick with us.

Time to break out the "bubbly," O Gentle Ones.

Happy birthday, every one of you.

Yes. It's party time at Weber County Forum!

Salt Lake Tribune: Feds Block Utah Law Over Police Power on Public Lands

Something to think about the next time our Weber County legislative "critters" are out campaigning under the "government frugality" banner, no?

For openers this morning, we'd like to direct our readers' attention to an eye-opening story in this morning's Salt Lake Tribune, reporting on the latest blowback from the 2013 Utah legislative session, wherein our Sage Brush Rebellion "cowboy" legislature, in a fit of Utah-style, anti-federal government sentiment,  gleefully passed Rep. Mike Noel's HB155, among other wonderful things.  This bill, which was "narrowly" drafted to limit the law-enforcement authority of employees of federal land-management agencies, has now landed in federal court in what has to be record time, a mere 36 days after the adjournment of the 2013 session. HB 155 was of course just one of a series of 2013 legislative bills designed to "curb" federal government clout, (translation: get in the federal government's face.) Read up folks about what we expect to be the first of several federal injunctions coming up over the next few months:

• Feds block Utah law over police power on public lands

Referring to the U.S. attorney's 2-count complaint, we find allegations which are just what we might have expected, i.e., that federal government attornies seek to "preliminarily and permanently enjoin enforcement of Sections 53-13-106.5 and 76-8-512(4) of the Utah Code, as amended by Utah House Bill (“HB”) 155 (2013), because these provisions are preempted by federal law and therefore violate the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution":

Utah Cowboy Caucus

Curious about which of your Weber County-based legislators bought into this lawsuit by voting yea on this bill?  For your future reference we've helpfully assembled these details here.  Yep.  Mostly "The Usual Suspects," folks:

• Weber County Legislators' HB 155 "Yea" Votes

Within the "prayer" of the U.S. attorney's complaint we find this standard "boilerplate" provision:

WHEREFORE, the United States respectfully requests the following relief:.. 3. That this Court award the United States its costs in this action...

Something for Weber County voters to think about after the court grants its inevitable permanent injunction and assesses costs in this matter... you know, the next time these legislative "critters" are out campaigning under the shop-worn "government-spending frugality" banner, no?

Weber County Forum Question of the Day: Is It Time For An Ogden/Weber School District Merger?

Theoretically, at least, the consolidation of these two districts could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars

More interesting over-the-weekend news concerning Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," wherein Nancy Van Valkenburg expands upon her earlier story on this topic and reports that officials of the Weber County School District, upon learning of the OSD's "decision to eliminate its adult education program Thursday morning," and being asked by the Utah State Office of Education “to assume full responsibilities,” cheerfully and immediately rolled out the welcome mat to the Ogden District's "booted" AEP students, with open arms, more or less:

• Weber district to absorb Ogden district's adult ed program

This noble gesture of course invites the question, folks:  "Is it time for the citizens of Weber County to put the question of a "complete" Weber County School District/Ogden School District merger back on the table?"

WCF readers with long memories will of course recall a 1989 proposal to consolidate these administratively-redundant school districts, a measure which actually appeared on Weber County ballots in November of that year. Weber County voters however then "muffed" the chance to drastically improve these geographically-overlapping districts' inefficient government services redundancy, succumbing instead to the pleas of vested interests within both school districts, who beat the bush "door-to-door," warning of "dropped jobs" and "loss of local (Ogden) school district autonomy."

Perhaps it's time for Weber County lumpencitizens to revisit this issue again, we'll suggest.  Looking at this issue solely from the a "bean counter" point of view, the consolidation of these two districts, and the elimination of the redundancies of the dual tiers of "fat cat" existing school system administrators alone could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District
• Utah's right to Know - Salaries - Weber School District

Throwin' in the Towel?

Additional sodden questions:

1. Taking into account the OSD's recent "nuclear" attacks on the very foundations of the Ogden School System, is it possible that OSD officials are actually and intentionally operating with a hidden agenda, an agenda designed to once again force Weber County voters' hands on this issue?
2. Are OSD officials in reality owning up to their managerial malperfomance and gross financial incompetence, and essentially throwing in the towel?

So what do you think, O Gentle Ones?

Would the consolidation of the separate Ogden and Weber School Districts into a single "lean and mean" Ogden/Weber School District "educational machine" be the kind of idea whose time has at long last come?

Don't let the cat get your tongues...