If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t good at all

The City of Nampa wants to “give” Ford Idaho Center to CWI

An open letter to the people of Idaho Legislative District 11, Canyon and Ada Counties, and all Idahoans by District 11 State Representatives Kent Marmon and Lucas Cayler.

It was recently announced that the City of Nampa wants to turn all the assets of its Ford Idaho Center over to the College of Western Idaho (CWI) for free. They say that it will be great for the school whose main campus adjoins that 100-acre property that includes the Arena that will seat over 12,000 people, an Amphitheater that will handle about 10,500, and a Horse Park and Sports Center that features 578 horse stalls, 44 full hook-up RV spots, two covered riding arenas, four open riding arenas and a 200-meter indoor track used for track and field events. The “gift” also includes 4,000 parking spaces and is easily accessible from I-84 in Nampa.

Why would the City really want to turn over, for free, a property that has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to build and maintain for over two decades? One reason is that this last year was the first year that they ended up “in the black” financially after 22 years of the facility’s existence. The city projected a $599,090 deficit for the year but ended up with a gain of $488,143 over expenses for the year for the first time in the history of the facility. The total cost of operating the facility in FY25 was $10.7 million.

One of the reasons given in a recent article about the facility mentioned that the success of having a year with revenues exceeding expenses was due to the private management by Oak View Group – more specifically by the site manager, Tim Savona.

A half-million dollar “profit” on a facility that cost $10.7 million last year isn’t a very good return on investment when factoring in over two decades of losses that were borne by the property taxpayers of Nampa.

The facility is now over 25 years old. It is undoubtedly in need of a great deal of renovation and upgrades. That could be one of the reasons the city wants to divest itself of ownership, while still having access for historical events like the Snake River Stampede. Renovations will likely cost tens of millions of dollars.

Anyone taking over this facility will immediately face nearly $11 million a year in facility costs that don’t include the tens of millions of dollars for needed renovations and upgrades needed.

When we look at College of Western Idaho (CWI) and its financial potential as a community college, we see that it receives funding from a variety of sources. One of these sources of revenue come from Property Taxes, assessed on all the property owners in Canyon and Ada Counties that provides about $11,360,000 in revenues for the school – about $1 million more than just the upkeep of the property. These property owners are currently assessed at a levy rate of $8.5194 per $100,000 in taxable property value.

The state Legislature appropriates funds to Community Colleges, as well. In FY2024, CWI’s share of the pie was $31.5 million, a $2.1 million increase over the previous year.

CWI receives a fixed annual appropriation of $800,000 from the state’s Community College Fund which is sourced from Idaho liquor sales. All the community colleges receive this money.

In addition, students are charged tuition at the school of $4,336 if they are Idaho residents and $7,344 if they come from outside the state of Idaho to partake of classes offered.

Even with all these revenue streams, they told Idaho Legislators during the 2025 session that they don’t have enough money to cover all the costs of their educational offerings, maintenance and operation, as well as their expansion to a 10-acre property on the Boise River at the intersection of Whitewater Park and Main Street that they acquired in 2015 to house programs in computer science, cybersecurity, information technology, adult education, ESL, health-care related instruction and business.

If this transfer takes place, they will be seeking more funding from the state of Idaho and from property taxpayers – not only those in Nampa who are currently covering all the costs of the Idaho Center, but from every property owner in Canyon and Ada Counties. The latter would need to be placed on the ballots of both counties for voter approval as a levy, or they may choose to use a bonding approach for capital expenditures that would have property taxpayers of both counties on the hook for at least 20 years if approved by the voters.

As members of the “Gang of 8” in the Idaho Legislature, we took a pledge against voting for any “enhancement” budgets that hired more full-time personnel, utilized federal money from a government that is currently about $37 Trillion in debt, or that was 1.2% or higher than the “maintenance” budget. At least two of these things would be factors in a budget request for upkeep and renovations of the Idaho Center property, resulting in our “no” vote on the request.

This acquisition would require the hiring of staff and management to run it, to say nothing of a major promotional campaign to attract rental of the facility for events as well as the management and support of said events and would be just one more thing that CWI would have to deal with.

When the taxpayers of Canyon and Ada Counties approved of CWI in May 2007, they were approving a school that would take the burden of trades programs and associate degrees from nearby Boise State University that now educates about 27,250 students. According to recent information, CWI has about 30,000 students that are taking credit, non-credit and on-line courses. They expanded to multiple leased buildings in Boise, where they teach around 4,500 students through various programs until their new 101,000 square-foot academic facility in Boise opens in the fall of 2027.

The U.S. Department of Education approved a move by CWI to expand its program to offer a four-year Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Business Administration that will begin in the fall of 2025. The State Board of Education provided a favorable review. Although a bill was presented to the Idaho Legislature during the 2025 session, it was not approved.

It won’t be long before CWI will be pushing for accreditation and approval to become a state college, which will undoubtedly be followed up in a few years by a request to be given full university status.

As this growth takes place in their programs, the expanded burden of the cost will be borne by all the taxpayers of Idaho in addition to the $31.5 million currently being budgeted by the Legislature.

A move to accept the Idaho Center property and all the expenses associated with it for the reasons as outlined above and when taking these other factors into consideration makes this a very bad idea.

Perhaps they should, instead, sell the property to a private promoter.

Kent A. Marmon

State Representative, Idaho Legislative District 11-A

KMarmon@House.Idaho.Gov

Lucas Cayler

State Representative, Idaho Legislative District 11-B

LCayler@House.Idaho.Gov