$15 million would come from taxing entities via RDA; $4.8 million from RAMP
By Dan Schroeder
The Ogden City administration is proposing to fund the $40 million field house project from a combination of public and private sources, as outlined in the RAMP grant application that it submitted Friday. The proposed funding breakdown includes:
- Extension of an RDA area: $15 million
- Private donors: $10 million
- RAMP: $4.8 million
- Ogden City: $3.2 million
- Weber County: $2 million
- Weber County School District: $2 million
The city’s RAMP application also provides itemized construction cost estimates from three sources, totaling from $33.8 million to $42.2 million. These figures include a new 416-stall parking garage but do not seem to include property acquisition or relocation of utility lines.
The proposed extension of a redevelopment area would divert property tax revenue from the various taxing entities to the field house project. Based on the $15 million total amount and the fraction of taxes that these entities currently collect, their lost revenues due to the extension would be approximately:
- Ogden City School District: $5.9 million
- Statewide School Basic Levy: $1.3 million
- Ogden City: $2.9 million
- Weber County General Fund: $1.9 million
- Weber County General Obligation Bond Fund: $280,000
- Central Weber Sewer District: $750,000
- Weber Basin Water: $430,000
- 911 and Emergency Service: $260,000
- Paramedic Fund: $190,000
- Mosquito Abatement District: $120,000
- Weber / Morgan Health: $100,000
- Library: $560,000
- Assess & Collect: $320,000
To make up for this lost revenue, the taxing entities could either raise their tax rates or cut services. The city’s RAMP application doesn’t specify the time period over which the $15 million would be collected; nor does it mention any interest on bonds that would be used to borrow against this future revenue stream.
Approval of the proposed RDA extension would presumably require a vote of the Taxing Entity Committee, whose members represent several of the larger taxing entities. In 2009 the committee approved a 12-year extension of the redevelopment area that includes The Junction.
The $4.8 million being requested from RAMP would constitute essentially all of the RAMP funds available for major projects for the next five years, until the RAMP tax automatically expires after 2015. Major projects are those costing more than $200,000, and generally account for one third of all RAMP allocations.
The city’s RAMP application provides no evidence that any funds have been pledged by the other proposed sources: Ogden City, Weber County, the Weber County School District, or the unnamed private donors.
A full copy of the city’s RAMP application is linked here (pdf, 1.9 MB). I obtained the application through a government records request submitted to Weber County on Friday afternoon, and I am grateful for the county’s prompt cooperation. In response to a similar request, Ogden City also offered to provide a copy of the application.
Update 1/21/11 7:28 a.m.: This article is also part of the discussion on Charlie Trentelman's Blogging the Rambler Blog:
Surprise of surprises! Qualms about this nutcase project are evidently not limited to our Weber County Forum readership.
Update 1/24/11 8:00 a.m.: Per Dan S.: Today's S-E reports that the $15 million would come from a 5-year extension of tax increment collection from BDO beyond its scheduled expiration in 2019:
