COEUR d'ALENE - Ignite cda board members passed a budget Wednesday despite objections at a 20-minute public hearing.

Coeur d'Alene's urban renewal agency, formerly known as Lake City Development Corp., is expected to receive $6.5 million in tax increment funds in the 2015-16 fiscal year. However prior to the hearing, two members of the community - Amy Lyons and Ray Writz - asked the board to postpone making any budget decision at all.

"I have nothing to say about the budget," Lyons said. "The reason is that this (a response to her public records request for detailed budget information) arrived on my doorstep a couple hours ago. There's no way in the world that I could review this in that amount of time to make a meaningful comment on the budget."

Lyons added that there were many people she spoke to about the budget hearing that wished they could have attended, but could not because the 4 p.m. meeting took place during their work day. Those people, according to Lyons, echoed her sentiment that the public was not properly informed about the proposed budget.

"People have not had enough time," Writz said following Lyons' remarks. "What you did followed the code of the law. But what was right was not done. You cannot really approve this budget without being fair to the people themselves."

When the hearing began, Chairman Denny Davis addressed the requests of the two residents by stating that, according to state statute, the organization has to submit its budget by the beginning of September. That timeline, Davis added, prevented ignite cda from entertaining the notion of postponing the hearing.

"The draft budgets were published in the Coeur d'Alene Press on Aug. 5 and Aug. 12," added Tony Berns, ignite cda executive director.

Berns then began a brief overview of the proposed budget, including providing a breakdown of the funding ignite cda is expected to receive for each of its districts. The Lake District, which contains portions of the downtown, midtown and Northwest Boulevard sections of Coeur d'Alene, will bring in an estimated $4.3 million in tax increment funding.

The smaller River District, which is located between Interstate 90 and the Spokane River from Ramsey Road to the city of Huetter, will bring in an estimated $2.3 million, Berns added.

"And just a reminder," Berns said, "ignite cda is not a taxing entity."

Tax increment financing, the mechanism by which ignite cda obtains funds, is calculated by using the difference between the amount of property tax revenue generated before the district was created and the amount generated after it was created.

Wednesday's hearing marked Mayor Steve Widmyer's first as an ignite cda board member. Since the budgeting process for an urban renewal district is different from that of a traditional city budget, Widmyer asked for clarification on which of the budget items were fixed and which items required further deliberation and action from the board.

Berns gave the example of ignite cda's public art fund, which allocates 2 percent of the revenue received during each fiscal year to the city's arts commission. This year, ignite cda is expected to give $131,607 to public art.

The 2016 budget includes a line item of $192,805 for “Ex. Director: salary, benefits, employer taxes.” 

Professional services, according to documents obtained by The Press, include an additional $40,000 to Range NW for its continued "community relations" work. Ignite cda will also pay $23,000 to continue its relationship with Boise lobbying firm, Molitor and Associates. 

Some of the projects that the agency included in its budget, the amounts of which are not set in stone and are still pending final board approval, are as follows:

* $1.6 million in Lake District funding for initial construction work on the Four Corners Project. The dollar amount could potentially cover costs associated with the reconstruction of Mullan Avenue.

* $250,000 in River District funding for potential improvements to the Citylink system in the Riverstone area.

* $100,000 in River District funding for potential improvements to Johnson Mill River, a 2-acre park located at 4340 W. Shoreview Lane.

* $191,000 in River District funding for a potential "Tech Market" project. According to Berns, this initiative is a joint effort with the Innovation Collective, University of Idaho, and Gizmo.

* $250,000 in River District funding for engineering and planning of proposed improvements to Seltice Way.

* $12,500 in Lake District funding for any additional placemaking opportunities in midtown, as well as additional funding in the event progress is made on the project and construction begins.

After hearing the examples from Berns, Widmyer suggested future budgets contain financials from previous fiscal years to be better able to see how numbers are changing. The budget was unanimously approved by ignite cda's nine-member board.