As a 30-year resident of Lane Ranch, Sun Valley, I want to urge fellow residents to vote Yes on May 16 at Sun Valley City Hall on two ballot measures.
Currently we are paying a 1% local-option sales tax to fund air service/support out of Friedman Memorial Airport. Most of the local-option tax, or LOT, is paid by visitors. Voters in Sun Valley, Ketchum and Hailey have renewed this tax twice. Because of efficiencies with the airlines, we now can keep our current air service with a lower tax of only .5% for air service/support.
Additionally, we have the opportunity to vote to support .5% for affordable workforce housing. The city of Sun Valley plans to use this funding, about $541,306 per year for five years, to complete the first responder housing at Greenhorn as well as explore opportunities for the recently city purchased Ellsworth Inn surrounding property in Hailey.
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I am a resident of the Wood River Valley. I have decided to take up surfing and move to Newport Beach CA. I am financially able to own or rent a home in Hailey, but could not buy a home or pay the rent in the Newport Beach area. I am still going there and will ask the citizens of Newport Beach, Del Mar and Solana Beach to subsidize my need for housing. I will also get a job at the local surf shop or restaurant and ask, no demand, that they pay me a living wage for the area. Get the message????
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Message:
1. The Wood River Valley generally doesn`t pay well enough to support their labor force.
2. The cost of housing is generally unaffordable for the American working class.
3. The wealthy generally don`t give a f**k.
4. *Always ask for a raise, they can only say no.*
"Our lives are fashioned by our chioces. First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us." Anne Frank
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Choice:
"To be free the worker must have choice.
To have choice they must retain in their own hands The Right to Determine under what conditions they will work".
Sam Gompers
Love the Gompers quote. It does beg the question--why do workers not claim The Right To Determine under what conditions they will work in the WRV? Gompers also reportedly said "Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected." Why no tourism/hospitality labor unions in the WRV? Of course, SVC gets around that with J1s.
Idaho is a Right to Work state.
@badge lots of union workers in Idaho. Ketchum FD is union. RTW doesn't prevent unions, just makes it harder. There is an AFL-CIO office in Twin.
Isn`t it rather pointless to try to bargain collectively without a closed shop?
That SV is spending money on housing for essential workers stands in stark contrast to how Ketchum spends money on housing (e.g., corproate welfare and retirees). Much better approach in my opinion. That being said, Ms Malkmus has drunk the kool aid on the the money that supposedly goes to air service. It does not. The majority goes to VSV to promote tourism. The minority that goes to air service has been building up in a bank account. She only needs to ask Mayor Hendricks to get the facts. He pointed this out at a recent SVASB meeting, and speculated that it might not even be legal.
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