Agency cuts redevelopment funds for private businesses in Boulder City

Faced with shrinking demand from the public and an increasing need for revenue to tackle costly city infrastructure projects, the Boulder City Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously to cut the allocation percentage of RDA funds to private businesses in half during a late afternoon meeting on Wednesday at Boulder City City Hall.

The agency’s decision to reduce from 50 percent to 25 percent the amount of available RDA dollars for nonpublic use was made retroactive to July 1, the start of the current fiscal year.

To show the lack of demand for RDA grant dollars by businesses, for the current fiscal year, the agency committed nearly $72,000 to three applicants compared with almost $134,000 to four businesses the previous fiscal year and more than $240,000 to seven applicants from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007, according to RDA records.

On the public side, where the city’s capital improvements share increased from 40 percent to 65 percent at the Oct. 22 meeting, the agency has allocated $540,000 in the first six months of this fiscal year compared with $130,000 for FY 2008 and $389,000 for FY 2007.

Although fewer and fewer businesses are taking advantage of the 9-year-old program that doles out money to help fix building exteriors, add signage and landscaping and install sprinklers and other life-safety upgrades, they could have lost it all.

“We’ve discussed this in past meetings and this was a compromise,” Mayor Roger Tobler said. “We’re at this point because some on this board wanted to do away with grants altogether.”

A former city councilman spoke in opposition to the shift in percentages, saying the goal of having RDA’s revenue grow because of the difference in taxes between the appraised property value when the agency was formed and after improvements are made, known as tax increment, would go unmet if the measure passed.

“I’m not here to give you a lesson on tax increment, but you all need it,” said Bill Smith, a councilman when the Redevelopment Agency was formed in 1999. “When we started the Redevelopment Agency, tax increment was important (but) at 65 percent, you get no tax increment. The only tax increment you’ll get is what you’re getting now.”

One thing that was left unchanged was the 10 percent allocation of RDA funds for administrative expenses.

Contact Boulder City View reporter Fred Couzens at fcouzens@viewnews.com or 279-5133.