CORRIDOR: No urban renewal

Thank you, Kathy Sims, for your My Turn column exposing the “health corridor” scam being pushed by well-heeled and well-connected Parkwood Business Properties and Kootenai Health.

They both have plenty of money to pay for property acquisitions and infrastructure needs themselves. And if not given a public handout they will.

They could also form a business improvement district (“BID”) or local improvement district (“LID’), which pay for things with assessments against local owners (mainly Parkwood and Kootenai).

Instead, they’re pushing for a new urban renewal district — which would be funded entirely by your property taxes. They want you to pay for their infrastructure and property acquisitions, instead of paying for it themselves.

The hospital area is the last place that needs urban “renewal” — property values there are already skyrocketing due to Kootenai and Parkwood purchases and the strong economy. And for a dozen other reasons, urban renewal isn’t justified there.

But with the urban renewal “eligibility” study being done by Boise consultant Phil Kushlan (instead of the local Panhandle Area Council), does anyone want to bet which way that will come out?

Parkwood, Kootenai and their front men think they can fast talk this corporate welfare grab past you because you’re too busy, too trusting or too dumb to figure out what’s going on.

Time to show them they’re wrong.

DAVID LYONS

Coeur d’Alene