Monday, January 18, 2010
40 Jealous Whores / Woods Newspapers Endorse Music City Center: Two More Reasons to Worry About This Project
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:56 AM
* We will borrow $650 million and for that we will get about a 4% increase in room night sales to convention and trade show visitors. We will do little or nothing for leisure and cultural tourism. * The economic impact for this project is estimated at $135 million. For our $7.5 billion economy that is a less than 2% improvement. * The estimate increase in tax revenues is about $12 million - a mere .8% boost and not enough to cover the $14 million we will redirect from other activities to the convention center. * These low returns on our investment suggest we will not significantly improve our tax base. * Without a significant improvement in our tax base, borrowing $650 million will "crowd-out" borrowing for other things. In order to keep debt ratios at the necessary levels and avoid rating downgrades, we will borrow less for other things. Alternatively, we will ignore debt ratios, continue to borrow for those other things, watch our bond rating drop, pay higher interest rates which in turn means we will borrow less. When we borrow less, the basic infrastructure of our city suffers.h/t Kleinheider
Comments (19)
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Recently I saw somewhere a poll of how each of our (representative?) council members intends to vote but I can't find it. Can someone tell me where it was?
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Wouldn't doubt that a bit.
I could swear it was in the Daily Fishwrap but trying to find something on their website is impossible.
The truth is we are redirecting the redirected $14 million which were originally redirected only a few short years ago by the Purcell administration by one of Emily's bestest buddies David Manning. Let's not act like these funds were always in place for this purpose. They were not.
My council member indicated to me he is leaning towards approval. I suspect (as I blogged last week) that Music City Center is a done deal, has in fact been a done deal for months, and all of this current debate is just so much CYA Kabuki theater.
I could swear it was in the Daily Fishwrap but trying to find something on their website is impossible.
Ain't that the truth. The Tennessean has the most useless website of any newspaper, anywhere. I don't understand why they even bother with an archive. Once a story is 48 years old it falls into a black hole.
Damn! The SCENE is getting in bed with some strange folks. Are any of you all going to Ben Cunningham's Liberty Rally?
If passed....
In four years there will be no 'institutional' memory,
just piles of debt for the next generation to bear.
As proposed the MCC is about as exciting as the one that they are getting rid of. Except bigger. More expensive and more worthless.
If not passed...
There will be greater opportunity to create a win win for citizens AND tourists. Metro has invested in some prime real estate, what they do with it remains to be imagined.
Council must consider cutting their losses now, preserve the investment they have made and reconsider the future.
The very least they can do is have the support of the county and not just the ivory tower of the MCVB.
____________
That's why we are lighting 600 candles for each one million dollars proposed tomorrow at One Public Square
If you are opposed to the manner in which this has been presented and executed, come on out
Citizens who win vote the truth.
www.citizenswin.org
Welcome to the fruits of government by referendum. First you eliminate all institutional memory on the council by bringing in term limits. So a councilperson like Evans seems like an expert because she can string sentences together into coherent paragraphs. When in actuality, she knows very little about Metro's debt, ability to borrow, and budget process. But she sounds smart, so let's believe what she says.
Secondly, you pass an amendment restricting the city's ability to raise taxes, thereby reducing our credit rating, which makes it more expensive to borrow money, thus requiring more taxes to do anything. Brilliant.
It's why the founders made this a republic and not a democracy. Rule by polling and the opinions of the masses = very poor decision making. Why? Because most people don't spend the time it takes to become expert on these issues, but it doesn't stop them from forming opinions.
It may be elitist, but its the bedrock principle of this country's political system that the best governing happens when elected representatives study the issue, develop expertise, and lead.
This comment on Councilwoman Evan's blog is an example:
"That last concern should be familiar to many public school parents. After the last wave of municipal monument building - the Titan's Stadium and Nashville Arena (both of which as a percentage of debt outstanding were much smaller projects than what we are talking about here) - we borrowed less for schools and they fell apart."
This comment on Councilwoman Evans blog is an example:
"That last concern should be familiar to many public school parents. After the last wave of municipal monument building - the Titan's Stadium and Nashville Arena (both of which as a percentage of debt outstanding were much smaller projects than what we are talking about here) - we borrowed less for schools and they fell apart."
This is just completely factually wrong. After the stadium vote the council that served from 95-99 went on to vote in the largest capital improvement plan for public schools in the city's history. A plan that largely rebuilt crumbling schools throughout the inner city and built new schools in the expanding suburbs.
Check the history.
Come on, Bill. You and about 10 guys from SEIU are going to set the Courthouse grounds on fire by lighting 600 candles tomorrow night. There will be no one else with you. Did you at least check to make sure that you're not violating any codes by building a mini-bonfire on the lawn.
Tell us how "Citizens Win" if we had government by opinion poll. You know who would win in that case? Pollsters.
I know who wins under the current form of Metro government: paid lobbyists, consultants, and their anonymous trolls.
So deems the highest priest(ess) of Nashville's blogosphere, AssClown Mike.
Wassamattah, AssClown, got your little cooter in a twist because no one will pay you to . . . well, to do much of anything?
Or are you just frustrated that no one will take economic development advice from a guy sitting around in his pajamas and banging out blog posts between watching re-runs of "Clone Wars"?
Or do you feel guilty because you won't say boo about Mike Peden, a vocal opponent of the Music City Center, giving $1,600 in campaign contributions to Jamie Hollin and then Hollin changed his position on the project? You do know he had told several people publicly that he supported the MCC previously, don't you?
Or are you just all pouty faced 'cause you're howling at the moon just to lose again?
Have you ever supported a candidate or cause that actually won?
