Welcome to a new week! I hope your weekend was great. It was awesome to have our Coast Guard son home for a couple of days. It was hard because he was there for the funeral of one of his best friends from his teenage years, but it was fun for him and his mom and me to reminisce about our memories of those days, and it was a gesture that his friend's parents and family really appreciated.
Watching the BYU game and a bit of the World Series this weekend certainly had its moments of up and down. But the Cougars won the shootout with Virginia and I'm glad the BYU crowd warmly welcomed back
former head coach Bronco Mendenhall and many of the Hoos' coaches that had their roots at BYU.
UPCOMING CITY EVENTS
YOUR VOICE
I have heard such great feedback on getting to know fellow employees, so please keep sharing your news, fun, and hobbies with us! Fill out the section in the right and upload pics below!
UPLOAD PICTURES HERE!
NEWS YOU CAN USE
- Happy National Gratitude Month and the start of the holiday season! Did this year fly by for anyone else?
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Ballots for this year's general municipal elections need to be postmarked TODAY or dropped in a dropbox by tomorrow, November 2 no later than 8 pm. In-person voting locations are also an option and can be found on your local municipality's website if you don't live in Provo.
- If you're looking for a heart-warming story to start a new week and a new month, read about a street dog named Boji who has become something of a celebrity in Istanbul, where he travels around the city on its ferries, trams and subway cars.
- Facebook has decided to rename itself Meta. “We have a new north star: to bring the metaverse to life,” Zuckerberg said. “Now, it is time to build the next chapter.”
HOT-BUTTON ITEMS IN PROVO
Let's talk about public infrastructure districts (PID's). On Friday morning, Dixon Holmes and I will be speaking at the Utah City Management Association meeting about Provo's experience with the state's first PID. I thought I might share what PID's are, why Provo chose to authorize one, and why we might not ever do another one.
Public Infrastructure Districts were approved in state legislation several years ago. The general idea of a PID is to create a mechanism to allow developers to pay for infrastructure (roads, utilities, and other infrastructure which will eventually be owned by cities) needed in new developments. The PID is created with approval of the underlying city (or county for unincorporated areas) and the PID becomes a separate governmental entity with authority to issue bonds for these initial improvements. The PID lives beyond the issuance of the bonds until they are paid off. The bonds are funded by a property tax levied by the PID board on land included in the PID, and then the PID dissolves once the bonds are paid off.
So, as an example, let's assume a subdivision of 100 homes is being planned, and rather than financing the public infrastructure with a bank loan or investors' money, the developer chooses to use the PID and the city approves. If there wasn't a PID, the developer would build the costs of the roads and utilities into the cost of the lot. With a PID, the cost of the lot is theoretically less but the property tax bill will be larger for the lot owner, and eventually the home buyer, who for the life of the bonds will be paying more in property tax than his neighbors who bought a home in a non-PID subdivision down the street.
This idea came to Utah from Colorado where PID's are used routinely. Cities in Utah have not been excited about PID's because they worry about 15 years down the road when folks who were not there at the beginning of the project are still paying a property tax to the PID. They also worry about having this "overlapping" taxing entity over which the city has no control once it is created.
In Provo's case, the developers of the medical school approached the city about using the PID for the public infrastructure at the medical school and associated housing complex. While we certainly had some reservations about being the first PID in Utah since the legislative approval, we thought there were some compelling arguments. First, the medical school and the housing complex would be in single ownership - a PID board of directors of "one" entity. That significantly reduced complexity during the life of the PUD. Second, the bonds would be issued for a significant job creator to undertake their project, not just another of a myriad of housing developers who might want to use this tool. The commercial developers associated with the medical school are experienced developers who went into the PID concept eyes-wide-open. And finally, given that the property taxes supporting the bond would be paid by the entity that directly benefitted from the bonded improvements, it had a direct link between financing and benefit, rather than a "secondary" link for future homeowners or property owners.
On that basis, the Municipal Council approved the creation of the PID and bonds were issued last year and construction is underway on the needed improvements to the City's infrastructure.
I hope that helps explain a very complicated tool, and that it helps understand why in this limited circumstance, the PID tool was a good fit for Provo.
FUN STUFF
Now that Halloween is in our rear view mirror, I wanted to share with you one of Provo's most energetic Halloween costume creators. BYU's athletic director Tom Holmoe takes Halloween costumes to an entirely new art form. The story is told that several years ago, Tom sported a very ordinary and mundane costume and he was called out by some BYU colleagues. Since that time, Tom has worked with the theater arts faculty at BYU to create a new costume every year. This year, he was Rafiki from the Lion King.
But in years passed, he has had several other personas.
So, next time you think you have the BEST costume of the year, recognize your competition!
I hope the rest of your day is great and that you had some fun for Halloween this year!
Wayne
PROVO SOCIAL MEDIA