• Connelly presses for more industrial jobs to cover county taxes
An Improvement Service District or ISD is the process of planning, permitting and building large-scale industrial facilities such as manufacturing plants, refineries and renewable energy farms. One such ISD in south Lincoln County is back on the table, but commissioner Kent Connelly reminds residents that not all of them are created the same.
“Most people when you say a service district they think of an industrial park with borders,” he explained to SVI. “The IDAWY Solid Waste District is a service district that spans two states which is a more recent example.”
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Connelly also addressed some controversy about the Lincoln Star ISD that is currently up for discussion including providing an extension to the request.
“One of the controversies in this instance was that the lands don’t border each other; they don’t have to,” he said. “The first one I was ever around was a swimming pool in Kemmerer. They formed an ISD and then put a bond issue on the ballot. That was businesses stepping up and saying we want this. No ISD is created equal and they aren’t the same. We’d like to get it moving along but we had a proposal to extend it. The first edition had owners in another county. That county said no so they brought it back. It’s a private property rights issue at the end of the day. Sometimes we’ll average up to 20 applications a month. In bigger developments this is a method they use. They came back with a different form.”
He noted that large industry is what has traditionally shouldered the tax bill for the area.
“We need incentives to bring in jobs to Lincoln County,” he said. “But we have trouble having in-between jobs. The big tax base with service districts; they are looking at Lincoln County. We need industry that keeps taxes at home.”
Connelly was asked about the involvement of TriSite with the Lincoln Star Improvement Service District and how they might stand to benefit.
“You always take a look at where the applications come in but at the end of the day I don’t get to judge developers whether they are going to succeed or fail,” he replied. “Some business are going to make it and others won’t. TerraPower is going to take ten years. Some out there like this one are four or five. IDAWY took eight years. We always have concerns but we would also like to get back to big business when they paid the bulk of the taxes.”
