[MissoulaGov] SID Deferrment

[Bob Jaffe]

Jim,
I asked Brentt to look into the issue of people who have been assessed in the past being allowed to defer the balance of their SID.  He did some research and determined that the language of the ordinance does not preclude this.  There are some qualification guidelines but it is available to people.
 
bob
 

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From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com on behalf of Jim McGrath
Sent: Fri 2/6/2009 7:03 AM
To: Jed Taylor; missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] Park rebuild project



I'm sure others will weigh in on this, because it is a thorny question. In fact, curiously philosophical for city council work.

I think all council members grapple with the question (I know I did). What is the "fair" way to fund projects like this? I tended to lean toward community-wide, in part so that all parts of the community could afford infrastructure.

The fact is that would result in many fewer projects -- some years none because all the resources would go to maintaining existing crumbling infrastructure. The sources of community-wide funding are real estate taxes and gas tax. Both may be declining. Property taxes are constrained. These capital projects are very expensive, too. In the case of parks, you can't use gas tax. I pretty much oppose the idea of park districts, but the amount of money devoted to park maintenance and development is dismal.

Plus there is history. The city has used the SID tool for many years. I know an elderly disabled fellow on the Northside who happened to have a corner house and was assessed a gigantic SID for curb and sidewalk. It presented a huge hardship and it is still in place. Are you interested in giving relief to past property owners who agreed by the petition process to have that assessment?

Given that we are doing SID's, the financing tool is only an option for the property owner. They can pay it or they can finance it themselves I suppose or they can take advantage of the city's financing. The amounts and timelines are such that the city can't "just pay for" and bank the neighbors. (There may be legal problems with that idea, too, I don't know).

I don't have any answers for these questions. I do know all the approaches to it have minuses as well as pluses.





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