I had this one in the back pocket for comment, as it came down right before the Labor Day holiday. Longmont City Councilor Mary Blue switched her vote from and earlier informal tally in August regarding Longmont's participation in a regional revenue sharing study. All the other east BoCo communities and Boulder and the County are chipping in $7000 each to determine if there's any "there" there. The Councilor's rationale was that there wasn't enough money to participate, which really means the money we have doesn't need to go towards this. An especially easy decision when everyone else is paying and the study will go forward regardless.
The discussions on this before don't lead me to believe there is any there there, however I respect the vision of the rest of the groups to at least vet the idea a bit more deeply before succumbing to pessimism. Longmont's dismissal shows how deeply the city distrusts anything championed by Boulder and Boulder County; perhaps they're more afraid of the answers that will be presented.
The version in the Times Call.
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2 comments:
My understanding is that at least the latest SuperWalMart in Longmont involved no tax rebates or other incentives by the City. Longmont may not be as financially hamstrung as we are in the crowded commercial playing field to the south. So that's a potential rationale for Longmont's lack of participation.
The value of incentives given to retailers in the rest of the County is the potential "there," in Dan's words. Especially if Broomfield were to participate, I continue to believe that there is significant potential to gain enough overall that the "winner versus loser" jurisdiction part of the equation could be minimized. If enough tax lost to incentives can be recaptured, even the jurisdictions that don't get as much revenue as they would without a revenue sharing IGA could still end up ahead of where they are now.
In theory.
If the recently released community survery is to be believed, 44% of Longmont's residents work in town.
This makes for a more sustainable community, as compared to the other cities/towns in Boulder County.
This also puts them in a better position to chart their own course. Unlike other EastBoCo towns, they don't rely on revenue leakage from surrounding towns to sustain their revenue stream.
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