Guest Poster found this from 3 years ago;
When the city council decided to raise our taxes last Semptember they promised two things. 1) That the extra revenue of .08% would go into a special fund that would only be spent on arterial roads 2) That the developers would be paying 50% of that tab through platting fees. Even with the economy down and the city not being able to raise $10 million for the roads doesn’t mean that developers should be off the hook for their half of the bargain. But it seems like they think they are, and the city isn’t doing a damn thing about it.
If you look at the April financial report you will find that platting fees are still dismal:Â april-finance
While the platting fees are pretty measly when compared to the $15 million contributed by taxpayers, I am wondering what (Contributions/Other) is? If you follow the numbers across, you will see that it looks like the (.92) is contributing to the (.08) fund. Interesting.
Guest Poster had this to say;
I know this is an oldie but there is still the question about the need for the 69th St viaduct, roundabout and 4 lane highway in front of the 2 ‘Christian’ run businesses called schools.
There still is no need for this expenditure. Â If WalMart would have been able to be built on this street, we the taxpayers would have been able to start recouping some of the costs. Â As of now, the only traffic for this multimillion dollar street extension are TeaBaggers paying to send their children to private church schools. Â If I mistaken, these ‘church’ schools are tax free and as such do not pay any taxes or street upkeep.
The funds should have been used to build a much needed 26th street / Southeastern / Sioux River, or Cliff Avenue bridge or both. Â The traffic jams at both of these intersections has been needing attention for 20+ years.
No matter what or how the downtown rail yard discussion plays out, infrastructure changes need to be made in the core of town. Â Trains are still going to be traveling on these tracks, in fact we recently learned BNSF is planning more trains per week. Â What is the city’s plan?
Why doesn’t the developers look at a development plan to actually consider the railroad a tourist attraction? Â Travel the roads of America and see how railroads have been a must see thing. Â I have been very happy with the city’s failure with the railroad. Â If the developers want to rework the railyard for their profits, let them pay for the costs.
Just because developers keep stretching out the the town’s boundarys doesn’t mean, we the citizens must pay for their ability to make more money on the taxpayer’s backs.
We are getting tired of socialism for costs and privatized capitalism of profits.