Alturas Technology Park

["bill london" <bill_london@hotmail.com>]

Is this welfare for the rich?

I suggest that you visit Alturas Technology Park.  It's by Tidyman's, on the 
Troy Highway, at the southeast edge of Moscow.
Enjoy the new roads, underground utilities, and the beautiful park (complete 
with fishpond and mammoth basalt columns) that were constructed there with 
funding supported by Moscow taxpayers through a complex scheme of deferred 
property tax payments.
There's a building now under construction at Alturas that looks out of 
place.  First, at this place for new high-tech companies, this brown brick 
building looks more like a Mississippi Mansion than a sleek modern 
structure.  Second, in a park supposedly devoted to technology-based 
companies, this will be the office of Moscow attorneys W. E. Anderson and 
John Walker, who will move there soon from their downtown location.
What I want to know is: WHY IS MY TAX MONEY HELPING TWO LAWYERS GET A CHEAP 
BUILDING SITE, AND WHY AM I PAYING TO DRAIN BUSINESSES AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN?
I took those questions to officials of the City of Moscow and the local 
Economic Development Council (EDC).  This is what I understand is happening:
In 1996, the EDC decided to focus on the goal of keeping high-tech companies 
in town after they outgrew the Business Incubator space managed by the UI.  
At a series of three public meetings sponsored by Vision 2020, and in other 
public pronouncements, EDC representatives said that there was a high demand 
by those high-tech companies for an attractive research/technology park.
No private capitalist was willing to provide that park, so the city arranged 
a complex financing proposal.  First, the city declared that it was in 
danger of losing businesses to Pullman and that there were "blighted areas" 
in Moscow that needed urban renewal.  Second, the city was then eligible to 
create an urban renewal agency, sell bonds, and even to build a research 
park.
The research park did not have to be located anywhere near Moscow's 
officially-certified "blighted area" (which ironically was right across 
Highway 95 from the UI Business Incubator).
So, instead of renovating the funky trailer park and motor businesses of the 
blighted zone, they chose to pave some farmland out on the Troy Highway.
Through a devious plan called tax-increment financing, Moscow's new Urban 
Renewal Agency sold $600,000 worth of bonds and used the money to put in 
those high-class utilities, roads, and the park.  The goal was to build the 
park in two phases, selling the six lots in the first phase and opening the 
second phase and selling those six lots--all quick enough to pay off the 
bonds in seven years.  During those seven years, the city of Moscow and 
Latah County would not get their lawful property taxes from that park, since 
that tax money would be used for the bonds.
The problem has been that the demand actually was not there.  One business, 
Pacific Simulation, moved from the incubator.  Another business Anatek Labs, 
moved from a building on South Main Street.  And then nobody else built 
anything.  The first phase is not sold out, and the second phase has not 
even started yet.
The point of desparation, where the income does not meet the required 
amount, has already been reached.  The city of Moscow is now buying the 
bonds from the bank and Moscow taxpayers are holding the proverbial bag.
How long it will take to pay off the bonds and start collecting property 
taxes there is anyone's guess.
Into this situation stepped the lawyers. Despite the designation of Alturas 
as a site for high-tech businesses, this was an opportunity to move from 
downtown to land that was less expensive, due to this tax-supported scheme, 
and to a park setting that was quite attractive (again due to our tax 
support).
I have a few questions here….
How many other downtown businesses that are not high-tech research companies 
will the EDC allow into Alturas Technology Park?
	How long will Moscow taxpayers have to support this park?
	Is this what they mean when people talk about welfare for the rich?

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