How much money do you think it would take to be sure you won an election for Governor of Idaho — 3, 4, maybe 5 million dollars? I believe we are going to find out in the 2018 election as Tommy Ahlquist pulls out his rather large wallet and all the stops in his bid to run the state. Question: Is this election about the money or the message and, if it’s about the message, what will Tommy say that Russ Fulcher hasn’t been preaching for the past 3 years since he ran against Otter?
It is a known fact that Tommy backed A.J. Balukoff, a Democrat in the 2014 race, against Butch Otter. He explains that A.J. is a good friend. Well, Tom, he must have been one heck of a friend for you to participate in his funding the way you did.
Tom claims he is not part of the establishment yet he hobnobs with the upper crust establishment by sitting on many boards like the Boise Chamber Board of Directors and the President’s Board of Directors for Boise State University. This is the same chamber that voted in 2015 to raise the gasoline tax and registration fees for the little guys. They also recommended continuing the Tax Reimbursement Incentive program which takes your tax dollars and gives them to businesses. These businesses will relocate to Idaho and provide jobs, but how many jobs and at what cost to the taxpayers? The real question is, why is government picking winners and losers with our money? Even Albertsons qualified to get your tax dollars to expand their presence. According to the Idaho Statesman, under the TRI program, Albertsons will receive a tax credit of up to 30 percent on income, payroll, and sales taxes over the 15-year term of the agreement. Wonder how Tommy voted on this issue? TRI even made deal with Paylocity for $6.5 million to move here and compete with an established Boise company, Employers Resources.
We understand from our sources that Ahlquist is a confidant of President Bob Kustra who just eliminated the wrestling program from Boise State — to the displeasure of many fans in the state — in favor of a Baseball program. Could it be that Tommy’s Gardner Group would be interested in building a new Baseball Stadium in downtown Boise and has been whispering in Kustra’s ear? We think Tommy is just a bit too cozy with both elected officials and the administrative executives appointed by the establishment.
Tommy boy is very active in urban renewal projects which use our tax money to build new projects. One of those projects his company Gardner Co. was involved in was the City Center Plaza and Boise Centre Expansion — a $70 million dollar project. Another of his projects appeared in the Meridian Press on June 22, 2016. “City approves Ten Mile urban renewal district” which covers 301 acres of farmland along North Ten Mile Road, just north of the freeway.
I’m not sure what they are renewing since we are talking about 301 acres of farmland. The Gardner Group won approval of the Meridian city council to do the project and take more money from the taxpayers of Meridian to put up a development which should have and could have been funded privately. Thank you, Uncle Tom, once again for dipping into the taxpayer cookie jar. Why do you bother to call yourself a conservative when you continually use public funds for your developments?
It’s time we stopped the fleecing of the Idaho taxpayers and started to question our new candidate for governor who pretends to be this conservative, however; when we dig down, we find someone who has been using the government to build his business and fill his own pockets for many years. What would keep him from doing the same thing if he were elected Governor? We already have a Governor who takes care of all of the crony establishment; we certainly don’t need another to take his place in 2018. We have to question if Tom is one of the most left-leaning Republican candidates for governor because of his history or if he is just another good old boy in disguise.
We just have to mention that Tom must have spent a bundle on Google ads to grab everyone’s attention as we even found one on our own Gem State Patriot News website and had to have it removed. I guess social media will be inundated with the Ahlquist cockroach ads that will infest our computers’ web pages for the next 12 months. We have many more questions about Tommy Ahlquist’s motivations to become our next governor but so far none of them seem to be for the benefit of Idaho’s taxpayers.
“We Get the Government We Deserve”
