The problem, Perry, with lots of people running for office is exactly what happened last election- you and Cardeverro split the anti- Bradshaw vote and he won without a majority. Let’s not have that happen again!
More to your point, Sandy, is the Mayoral race, to wit: Should a single mayoral candidate not receive more than fifty percent of the vote, a mayoral runoff election shall be held between the two leading candidates receiving less than a majority of the total vote, including candidates who are tied for the second-place position, if any.
This is, as usual, essential information for residents of Ketchum. I appreciated the part about tourism being hard on a community.
But, I must again try to let people know that the Fire Consolidation is not a "sneaky" way nor is it a "slimey" way to raise Ketchum taxes. And it is completely wrong to say that your taxes will go up but "you won’t get any benefit". The tax meets the Idaho requirement that all taxes have a specific purpose. The purpose is to provide better fire and ambulance response to residents and visitors alike.
Consolidation will add $21 per $100,000 of assessed value if the measure is passed. So, $210 for a million dollar home.
If the measure does not pass, then the City of Ketchum could lose the ambulance contract. This is could seriously happen. That contract contributes $1.7 million to the Ketchum Fire Department each year. Without that contract, there would be either a great reduction in services, or (if Ketchum residents cannot live with that reduction of fire and rescue services), the $1.7 million would have to come from increased taxes, which amounts to $27 per $100,000. So, $21 now or $27 later?
So voting yes on consolidation does two things:
1) It provides the benefits of having better staffed stations, and better training, which results in better fire response, front-country rescue, and better patient care. How is that not worth $210 per one million dollar house (and being deductible it will cost some people in the range of $150 bucks). If you live in a $5 million house....will that break your back?
2) This measure might reduce taxes. Call up your ambulance district commissioners (the county commissioners), and ask them....."Is it possible that the ambulance contract might be awarded to a third party in the future and thus discontinue ambulance service coming from the fire departments?" If that happens, look for your taxes to go up if you want similar fire/rescue services. Maybe I am wrong, maybe something has changed, maybe it has been cast in stone that fire-based ambulance will never go away. But I have not read any news about that. So if someone has new information, please call me at 208-720-3438, because I would like to get set straight.
3) Consolidation is the right thing to do for Ketchum. You Ketchumites don't spend every minute in the city. So your heart attack might happen in Hailey, or you might break your leg hiking out Deer Creek, or your car accident might happen at the blinking light. Do you want ACME Ambulance Service to respond? Or do you want a highly trained, a cross-trained, EMS-trained fireman/woman to get your ass off that trail, or rip the door off your crushed car and start medical care right away? It is a no-brainer. Vote yes and let's move on instead of talking about what a great idea consolidation would be for ANOTHER 30 years.
Perry, I wish you would either set me straight on this with better information or stop complaining about a measly $21 bucks. Geez, let it go and help Ketchumites retain the great service they have, and make it better valley-wide.
My point is that the Council is using consolidation not just for consolidation, but ALSO as a back door to a tax increase on Ketchumites. And that, in my opinion, is very very slimey.
I still think we need leadership from the Ketchum Mayor on education of the community if consolidation is going to pass. So far, the City has done nothing on that.
This is the same Mayor who pushed to defer an increase in the LOT tax until May until the advocates could organize what he called a "door-knocking" campaign to get people to vote for it during Slack.
They will do whatever it takes to raise taxes, but won't do more than the minimum to educate the community on any other issue, be it consolidation, Comp Plan or whatever.
I understand your frustration with the City. But this tax serves a valuable service. It meets the requirements.
That being said, I agree the City should put out some information including the things I have said (if my points are still relevant) and add other great reasons that I have not thought of.
I don't know why they don't educate. Maybe they want consolidation to fail? Why would that be? Are they lazy? Maybe they are not well-informed by the fire chiefs? Maybe they are planning to do the public education right before the elections so people have it fresh in their minds.
But I still wish you could look at this a little differently. Maybe inform yourself about what I have said. Make some calls to see if my view is incorrect (a view formed over a couple decades). There may be new information. Your blog is so valuable BECAUSE you do your research. But you are not seeming to want to do a little of it on this subject before you ask Ketchumites to strike down an incredibly valuable measure that comes at very little cost. Let me know if there is something I can do to help.
Sure, we can be Zermatt. All we have to do is blow a hole under Dollar Mountain and spit the highway out by Hulen Meadows. Not sure how we would put the train tracks back in...
Even with the highway gone we still have to drive our cars to get to town. Not all of us want to live in town, even if we could afford to do so.
I agree Perry that we did not have any public warning about the City owned properties being discussed at the last City Council meeting. Rather important for the citizens to know about I'd say.
I think the Trail Creek sight is a potentially good project and it provides parking. However, SV has to be willing.
I know you are going to come back and tell me this is corporate welfare. But not every SV employee is a J1.
For council, I think we should go to ranked order voting. For mayors we should have a runoff of no one gets a majority.
The problem, Perry, with lots of people running for office is exactly what happened last election- you and Cardeverro split the anti- Bradshaw vote and he won without a majority. Let’s not have that happen again!
If the two-vote per voter system is not changed, it will happen again ....and again...and again.
I like runoff for Mayor and ranked order voting for council
More to your point, Sandy, is the Mayoral race, to wit: Should a single mayoral candidate not receive more than fifty percent of the vote, a mayoral runoff election shall be held between the two leading candidates receiving less than a majority of the total vote, including candidates who are tied for the second-place position, if any.
This is, as usual, essential information for residents of Ketchum. I appreciated the part about tourism being hard on a community.
But, I must again try to let people know that the Fire Consolidation is not a "sneaky" way nor is it a "slimey" way to raise Ketchum taxes. And it is completely wrong to say that your taxes will go up but "you won’t get any benefit". The tax meets the Idaho requirement that all taxes have a specific purpose. The purpose is to provide better fire and ambulance response to residents and visitors alike.
Consolidation will add $21 per $100,000 of assessed value if the measure is passed. So, $210 for a million dollar home.
If the measure does not pass, then the City of Ketchum could lose the ambulance contract. This is could seriously happen. That contract contributes $1.7 million to the Ketchum Fire Department each year. Without that contract, there would be either a great reduction in services, or (if Ketchum residents cannot live with that reduction of fire and rescue services), the $1.7 million would have to come from increased taxes, which amounts to $27 per $100,000. So, $21 now or $27 later?
So voting yes on consolidation does two things:
1) It provides the benefits of having better staffed stations, and better training, which results in better fire response, front-country rescue, and better patient care. How is that not worth $210 per one million dollar house (and being deductible it will cost some people in the range of $150 bucks). If you live in a $5 million house....will that break your back?
2) This measure might reduce taxes. Call up your ambulance district commissioners (the county commissioners), and ask them....."Is it possible that the ambulance contract might be awarded to a third party in the future and thus discontinue ambulance service coming from the fire departments?" If that happens, look for your taxes to go up if you want similar fire/rescue services. Maybe I am wrong, maybe something has changed, maybe it has been cast in stone that fire-based ambulance will never go away. But I have not read any news about that. So if someone has new information, please call me at 208-720-3438, because I would like to get set straight.
3) Consolidation is the right thing to do for Ketchum. You Ketchumites don't spend every minute in the city. So your heart attack might happen in Hailey, or you might break your leg hiking out Deer Creek, or your car accident might happen at the blinking light. Do you want ACME Ambulance Service to respond? Or do you want a highly trained, a cross-trained, EMS-trained fireman/woman to get your ass off that trail, or rip the door off your crushed car and start medical care right away? It is a no-brainer. Vote yes and let's move on instead of talking about what a great idea consolidation would be for ANOTHER 30 years.
Perry, I wish you would either set me straight on this with better information or stop complaining about a measly $21 bucks. Geez, let it go and help Ketchumites retain the great service they have, and make it better valley-wide.
I hear you.
My point is that the Council is using consolidation not just for consolidation, but ALSO as a back door to a tax increase on Ketchumites. And that, in my opinion, is very very slimey.
I still think we need leadership from the Ketchum Mayor on education of the community if consolidation is going to pass. So far, the City has done nothing on that.
This is the same Mayor who pushed to defer an increase in the LOT tax until May until the advocates could organize what he called a "door-knocking" campaign to get people to vote for it during Slack.
They will do whatever it takes to raise taxes, but won't do more than the minimum to educate the community on any other issue, be it consolidation, Comp Plan or whatever.
Why is that?
I understand your frustration with the City. But this tax serves a valuable service. It meets the requirements.
That being said, I agree the City should put out some information including the things I have said (if my points are still relevant) and add other great reasons that I have not thought of.
I don't know why they don't educate. Maybe they want consolidation to fail? Why would that be? Are they lazy? Maybe they are not well-informed by the fire chiefs? Maybe they are planning to do the public education right before the elections so people have it fresh in their minds.
But I still wish you could look at this a little differently. Maybe inform yourself about what I have said. Make some calls to see if my view is incorrect (a view formed over a couple decades). There may be new information. Your blog is so valuable BECAUSE you do your research. But you are not seeming to want to do a little of it on this subject before you ask Ketchumites to strike down an incredibly valuable measure that comes at very little cost. Let me know if there is something I can do to help.
I think consolidation just isn’t that important to the council as tourists dont care about it.
Sure, we can be Zermatt. All we have to do is blow a hole under Dollar Mountain and spit the highway out by Hulen Meadows. Not sure how we would put the train tracks back in...
Even with the highway gone we still have to drive our cars to get to town. Not all of us want to live in town, even if we could afford to do so.
I agree Perry that we did not have any public warning about the City owned properties being discussed at the last City Council meeting. Rather important for the citizens to know about I'd say.
I think the Trail Creek sight is a potentially good project and it provides parking. However, SV has to be willing.
I know you are going to come back and tell me this is corporate welfare. But not every SV employee is a J1.