{"id":10912,"date":"2019-03-29T17:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=10912"},"modified":"2019-03-29T17:42:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:42:56","slug":"city-of-hailey-puts-tax-increase-measure-on-may-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/29\/city-of-hailey-puts-tax-increase-measure-on-may-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"City Of Hailey Puts Tax Increase Measure On May Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council member Martha Burke announces she will run for mayor in November<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Councilmember Martha Burke announces her candidacy for Hailey mayor at this week\u2019s Hailey City Council meeting on Monday, March 25. Photo credit: The Weekly Sun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Hailey\u2019s next two elections took clearer shape in one city council meeting this week. Sitting councilmember Martha Burke declared her candidacy for mayor of Hailey and the city council as a whole declared the need for more revenue. That is, if residents want the \u201cstreetscape\u201d improvements many folks say Hailey needs.<\/p>\n

Council members voted unanimously to place on the May 21 special election ballot an increase in Idaho Power\u2019s so-called franchise fee from 1 percent to 3 percent. A franchise fee is a charge to the utility from the city, and is usually based on a percentage of the utility\u2019s gross<\/p>\n

revenues collected from customers located within city limits.<\/p>\n

In other words, everyone\u2019s power bill is going up a bit if a simple majority of voters say it\u2019s OK to do so. The measure, if approved, would likely add an additional $120,000 to the city public works budget.<\/p>\n

The vote came on the heels of Burke\u2019s surprise announcement at the beginning of Monday\u2019s session at City Hall. Burke said her time on the council and involvement in the community has made her ready for a more \u201cenhanced\u201d role in city government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s high time you stepped up,\u201d Mayor Fritz Haemmerle told Burke. \u201cI\u2019d be happy to pass the baton to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballot May 21<\/b><\/p>\n

City staff gave the council three ballot initiatives to choose from Monday night. Behind door 1: a tax levy that would have raised nearly half a million dollars more per year for the next two years. Behind door 2: a tax levy that would have raised nearly half a million dollars more per year, permanently.<\/p>\n

Those options, staff and council predict, would not only fund the streetscape improvements, but a still-being-concepted town square many residents want to see. The town square would be located in a central Hailey area and could play host to both permanent and temporary vendors, special events and more. Think Ketchum Town Square and you get the idea, but so far a preferred location has not been identified.<\/p>\n

The council and the mayor all agreed that asking voters to support a levy for an unformed idea\u2014as popular as it seems to be\u2014would not be politically or fiscally very wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not anywhere near stepping forward and saying \u2018cut the ribbon,\u2019 we can do it,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

However, the council did show interest in the idea of a so-called town square \u201cpop-up\u201d (a temporary location and\/or set of structures) this summer.<\/p>\n

Ballot Nov. 5<\/b><\/p>\n

Since Haemmerle\u2019s surprise announcement in February that he would not be seeking reelection as Hailey\u2019s mayor, no one has stepped up to throw their proverbial hat into the ring, until Burke did so Monday night. Haemmerle hosted a special town hall session in March he dubbed \u201cpolitical karaoke\u201d to elicit mayoral candidates. While many residents spoke about their vision for their city, no one declared their candidacy.<\/p>\n

Burke is a veteran councilmember, having served since 1993. Among other community and civic roles, she has also served a 15-year tenure on the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority board of directors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council member Martha Burke announces she will run for mayor in November By Eric Valentine Hailey\u2019s next two elections took clearer shape in one city council meeting this week. Sitting councilmember Martha Burke declared her candidacy for mayor of Hailey and the city council as a whole declared the need for more revenue. That is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,18,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hailey","8":"category-news","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}