Dear Editor: 

To the Goshen Irrigation District Landowners and Taxpayers,

From the information put out by the engineering firm and GID Management, to be able to go to bid, they want to borrow twenty-five million dollars or more, which I would like to point out is a five-hundred-dollar mortgage per acre for the term of the loan. This will add twenty-five dollars an acre on top of our existing taxes per acre, which is almost sixty dollars an acre in water tax and from here are taxes will keep increasing over the years. To show the economic impact, on my farm I would need to profit two hundred dollars an acre to pay for that acre and only two and one-third more acres. On some years with hail, tornadoes and unforeseen economic impacts that drive commodity prices down, we might only clear one hundred dollars or less.

Using the one hundred dollars would only pay for that one acre and two-thirds of another acre.

This will cause a tremendous economic hardship to all of us. Surely our board members, who are also water users, can see the economic disaster we are headed for. The value of cash rent will increase, the possibility of selling acres under GID water right will be harder to sale, etc.

Currently the plan is for GID to beg the federal government for forgiveness, so the loan would be cut down or eliminated. Historically this is very rare. The original note GID had from the federal government started in 1926 and the note was never forgiven and had to be paid in full.

In my opinion, there are too many reclamation projects in the west that are all around one hundred years old that are in need of repair, so it is highly unlikely this current note would ever be forgiven. The odds are extremely slim. Our board could make some major decision changes to alter the path we are currently headed down. Once such change could be the hiring of Elon Musk, The Boring Company. They have been boring tunnels for numerous years, have multiple machines, are the most experienced in the United States and have proven to be very successful.

I would like to point out, we currently have enough money on hand, without borrowing, to hire The Boring Company. I would like to remind everyone that per our contract with the United States government, the decisions to repair the reclamation works in Wyoming is made by the GID board. Yes, we need to be friends with our Nebraska neighbors; however, per our contract, the decision on the repairs is made in Wyoming.

Robert Coxbill

Goshen Irrigation District Landowner and Taxpayer