Is It THAT Awful?

It was reported in yesterday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News that:

Building permits are up over 2005 so far, and 2005 was a record-breaking year. That’s a sign of a healthy local economy, said City Supervisor John Sherman.

More building permits generally lead to increases in sales taxes, property taxes and utility taxes, Woo said. Those are the kind of revenues that will benefit the city in the long run.

The biggest boost came from commercial building projects — about $8 million in valuation through April, compared to about $849,000 at the same time last year. A few big projects at Washington State University and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories account for the increase, Woo said, so he isn’t expecting the trend to continue through the end of the year.

...

Schweitzer is building a five-story, 90,000-square-foot building that will serve as its corporate office when finished in October. The company also started building a 20,000-square-foot conference and event center in its complex at the Port of Whitman County’s Pullman Industrial Park off of Northeast Terre View Drive.

...

More than 100 single-family building permits were issued in 2005, breaking the previous record of 89 permits issued in 1999. The city also saw a record $64 million added to the property tax rolls.

...

Having a healthy local economy is vital to the city, Sherman said. The city no longer can rely on help from the state the way it did about 15 years ago, when about one-third of the city’s general fund revenues came from state money. Money from the state makes up about 10 percent of the city’s anticipated $12.2 million in 2006 revenues, according to the budget adopted by the City Council in December.

Remember Citizen Hosick said that she thinks the new SEL project "is an absolutely awful example of hilltop development, and a prime example of what any city/county development code in this area ought to prohibit."

It's a good thing Citizen Hosick isn't running the city. That "awful" SEL development will pump hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales and property tax revenues into the city's coffers. And SEL is the engine that is driving that "healthy local economy" that is creating the increase in single family homes as well, with 168 new jobs scheduled in Pullman for this year.

Hosick and her PARDners, by fighting against Wal-Mart, are keeping us from realizing any retail sales tax increases. So now they apparently want to deny us the less reliable and cyclical new construction revenue as well.

Remember Crazy Al's 6th Principle: "Present an Alternative." So far, all we have seen from Hosick and PARD is negativity, wild rumors, and wishful thinking. Enough already. Pack up your Birkenstocks and go home.

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