Here's another quick reminder of today's upcoming event. The Ogden RDA Taxing Entity Committee (TEC) meets today at noon, on the third floor of the Ogden City Municipal Building, to consider whether they'll go along with the Godfrey administration's proposal to extend The Junction’s tax increment district, and allow Ogden City to to continue exploiting 100% of the project's tax increment until the year 2026.
During the last TEC meeting, the mayor's proposal was met with a cool reception, and the committee voted 7-1 to table the proposal and look for other alternatives. In the interim since the last meeting however, the Godfrey administration has been fiercely lobbying, and spreading a little money around, so it's anybody's guess how this matter will turn out if it's put to a vote this afternoon.
We've already gone on record in strong opposition to this knuckleheaded plan of course, which if approved by the TEC, would place all these taxing entities in the posture of voluntary investors in the Junction project, a position which would be in direct conflict with their proper role of service providers for the taxpayers, whom these government entities are designed to serve. As we've already pointed out, a vote in favor of this proposal by any TEC member would be adverse to the economic interests of the taxing entities whom such committee members represent. Time to test the TEC's ethical mettle, we suppose.
For those who'd like to bone up on the subject pre-meeting, we invite you to check out Dan's most excellent Special Reports.
We'll now open this article for immediate reader comments; and we'd likewise welcome any post-meeting reports from those WCF readers who may attend today's event.
Don't let the cat get your tongues.
Oh, My! apparently, and according to the most recent report, the "Brothers in Ogden" have bent down and decided to serve "Blessed Boss Godfrey."
Update 8/19/09 3:00 p.m. MT: We just received this update from one of our most reliable sources within city hall. The TEC committee did indeed roll over in spades this afternoon, and adopted Boss Godfrey's flawed bailout plan whole hog:
The Taxing Entity Committee approved the extension of the mall RDA with a 6-2 vote – Weber County did not support the extension but also did not raise concerns. The Board will be seeing an action item on this in the near future.Chalk this up as another big win for the "good ole boyz network" in Ogden. We all know who they are.
Shame on the Ogden School District representatives, by the way. They should be looking after their already underfunded school district... but apparently real revenue isn't their top priority these days.
We obviously still have a lot of work to do in Emerald City, fellow lumpencitizens, in our ongoing effort to root out the Godfreyite trash.
Sad, very sad.
8/20/09 9:46 a..m. MT: Scott Schwebke his writeup in today's Standard-Examiner:
• Ogden RDA extends Junction tax increment district by 12 yearsIt's a sad commentary indeed, about the poor quality of the taxpayers' representatives on the Taxing Entity Committee.
