Kuna City Council members set LID connection fee

Kuna City Council members have given local improvement district landowners a break on sewer connection fees — and provided an incentive to pay their assessments in full by March 22.
City Council members, on a 3-1 vote, approved a resolution Monday night that designates the $3,233.75 assessment as a credit toward the payment of a sewer connection fee. In addition to the assessment, if landowners pay in full within the 30-day open pay period, they can receive a sewer connection for an additional $500, which represents a discount on the current sewer connection fee.
Currently, a sewer connection in the city of Kuna costs $4,326. A big question that has been lingering for months is whether the LID landowners would have to pay that full amount in addition to the $3,233.75 that they’re paying as part of their assessment that’s paying back about $26 million in construction costs on the new sewer treatment plant.
The question was key, as it was a vital unknown for many landowners who were trying to make a business decision about whether to walk away from their land or not.
The resolution appears to be a good-faith effort on behalf of the City Council to address some of the complaints and concerns of the LID owners, many of whom likely face foreclosure on their property because of this assessment.
Although the resolution resolves some important financial issues, it likely won’t be enough to avoid a lawsuit, which many landowners have threatened.

You can read the rest of this editorial, including what happened with the EDU transfer registry, in this week's Editor's Notebook in the Kuna Melba News.