Sunday Rant
I haven’t been posting much lately due to other commitments (that will change soon) but I thought I’d post a quick rant capturing my thoughts about the murder of abortion provider Dr George Tiller. The murder took place today outside of his church in my hometown of Wichita, KS.
Who’s Paying?
In this morning’s JG, Ben Lanka reports on the beginning of excavation for the planned new hotel in the Harrison Square area. Ben quoted Greg Leatherman, ” the developer’s financing for construction is not complete” in telling that the hotel project is not yet finalized.
So, where is the money to proceed coming from? It’s probably from the commitment of the sale of up to Six million dollars in CRED tax credits that the State of Indiana assigned to this project. So it continues - only public money has been spent on the whole Harrison Square project to date!!
Per the “Hotel Development Agreement”, Section 1.6 Contribution of the City, part E. reads, “Developer’s obligations hereunder are expressly subject to its ability to obtain an investor to monetize (purchase) such Six Million Dollar ($6,000,000) CRED tax credits on or before the commencement of construction of the hotel”
(Note) There is a limit on the amount of this tax credit for this project - it cannot exceed 25% of the hard costs of the hotel - which at latest info is to be $20 million.
So one-fourth of the cost of this part of the boondoggle is being paid using taxes paid by other entities in the state. And, remember ALL of the money paid to date on Parkview Field and the parking garage will be repaid only with tax dollars! WAY TO GO YOU BRIGHT PEOPLE -screwing all taxpayers in our state (but, especially us in Fort Wayne) Much more on this coming up (the screwing of our city’s contractors).
Allen County taxpayers screwed again
You should take the time to read this story in the News Sentinel. The article is entitled “Food tax funds go to improvements.” It should have been called “taxpayers screwed again.”
As readers of this blog know the local Allen County Food and Beverage tax was passed only when it was amended such that it was a temporary tax. This temporary tax was supposed to expire…
Those of us who watch government know that there is no such thing as a temporary tax.
The state Legislature, with broad support from local Democrats and Republicans in the Indiana Legislature passed a bill at the state level that will make our local tax permenant. They have 100% discounted the will of the people when the tax was passed and they have changed what the tax will be used for; all without consulting the taxpayers.
I will never vote for any of the politicians who voted in favor of this bill.
There are some particularly funny passages in this article:
“State legislators, economic-development specialists, and lobbyists gathered Tuesday at the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce to praise one another’s bi-partisan cooperation in getting the bill passed.”
Please notice that neither tax payers nor voters nor business owners gathereed to celebrate…
“This really shows what we can do when we work together,” said state Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne.”
So let me get this straight Tom, you are proud of the fact that Democrat and Republican politicians joined together to over-ride the will of the voters and taxpayers of Allen County?
I could go on and on about this.
What do you think?
Mike Sylvester
Chrysler and President Obama
As all of you know I opposed the bailout of Chrysler and I wish we would not have spent a single tax payer dollar on Chrysler. I think we should have let Chrysler go into bankruptcy last year.
During the lead up to Chrysler’s bankruptcy President Obama called on the bondholders of Chrysler to make large sacrifices; in fact, he got angry when Chrysler went into bankruptcy saying he felt that a few of Chrysler’s bondholders forced the company into bankruptcy.
President Obama has no idea of what he is talking about; at least as far as this issue is concerned
Consider a couple of facts:
- First and most important is that in bankruptcy the bondholders are protected and they are more likley to recover a higher portion of their investment. That was written into the bankruptcy code on purpose to facilitate the sale of corporate bonds.
- Second President Obama proposed giving the United Auto Workers 43 cents on the dollar on the amount it is owed by Chrysler while at the same time asking the bondholders to accept 28 cents on the dollar. Worse yet his plan offered the UAW a 55% ownership interest in the reformed company; while the bondholders would get effectively no ownership.
As usual I think the government should not be involved with Chrysler at all; however, if they do decide to get involved they should try to structure the deal in such a way that each of the parties that is due money from Chrysler gets a proportional amount of the money they are owed and a proportional ownership interest based on the money they are owed.
President Obama’s plan did not do that at all. It gave the UAW the best deal, gave the Government a decent deal, and screwed over the parts suppliers owed money by Chrysler as well as the bondholders.
Jeff Pruitt had an interesting post a few weeks ago entitled “Stick it to the bondholders.” In that post Jeff correctly points out how the bondholders were asking for far too much. I agree with him; however, the Administrations position offered the bondholders far less than it offered the union and that is simply wrong.
Once again, all of the groups owed money by Chrysler should get a proportional amount of money and ownership based on the amount they are owed by Chrysler.
Mike
Another smack-down
Back on March 30, I posted a copy of a Petition for Intervention and Request for Appeal Hearing that was filed with the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission on this blog. On Saturday an answer was received which stated that my petition was denied. The reason given was, “Remonstrator has not outlined a particular harm to a legal interest that he will suffer in the future; therefore Remonstrator has failed to demonstrate a direct injury for which he will be ‘personally aggrieved or adversely affected’ to attain standing as an intervening remonstrator”.
In other words, despite the accusation that the permit was improper due to the fact that the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Authority is not a municipality and therefore it can not be issued a type 219 permit, plus the accusation that the local ATC board did not adequately investigate my contentions - the State ATC Hearing Judge, E. Edward Dunsmore, has ordered, adjudged and decreed that I have no business in calling these items to the attention of the State Commission.
Why am I not surprised ?
President Obama kills Yucca Mountain in his draft budget
As many of you know I spent over eight years in the nuclear power generation industry; six years in the USN (Four of which I was stationed on a nuclear submarine in Hawaii) and a couple of years at a civilian plant in Nebraska. I got out of the nuclear power industry because I felt that the industry was being destroyed by excessive government regulations and because I disliked working rotating twelve hour shifts.
I have never regretted my decision to change careers.
One of the largest problems facing nuclear power plants is the storage of nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel rods. Currently the plants have all had to construct local storage sites (think of them as reinforced swimming pools). Many of these pools have been filled and the plants have then had to construct additional local facilities at great cost.
In 1982 the Federal Government decided to create the Nuclear Waste Fund. All consumers of nuclear power in the US pay a tax which is collected and was to be used to create a facility to store nuclear fuel. Per the Department of Energy the US Government had collected enough tax dollars to build a state of the art facility by 1992.
Eventually the Federal Government contractually agreed to have a facility in place at Yucca Mountain by January 31st, 1998. Yucca Mountain is still nowhere near completion and there are currently 67 lawsuits in process that were filed by various utilities against the government for breach of contract. Many experts feel the Federal Government may have to pay 50 billion dollars or more once those lawsuits are settled. Currently the Government estimates they will only have to pay seven billion due to the lawsuits if Yucca is open by 2017. They further estimate they will have to pay eleven billion if Yucca is not open until 2020.
The Federal Government clearly failed to keep their end of the deal and they are obviously going to waste tens of billions of additional taxpayer dollars due to the lawsuits…
In 2001 The Department of Energy completed a large and detailed cost study; this study determined it would cost six and one half billion dollars to build the Yucca Mountain Facility.
As of today approximately 9 billion dollars have been “spent” on Yucca Mountain and it is nowhere near completion.
Interestingly enough, even after considering the 9 billion dollars that have already been spent the Nuclear Waste Fund contains about 23 billion dollars.
The Yucca Mountain saga is a lesson on the inefficiency of large Government.
President Barack Obama’s draft budget kills the Yucca Mountain project by cutting off funding. He has effectively set aside 200 million dollars to continue to study the problem and come up with new alternatives.
This is absurd; the Government has spent billions researching the “problem” and came up with the Yucca Mountain facility as the solution.
Good Grief
Local Fiscal Policy On the Wrong Track
Given the tax-happy sentiments of our local officials, one might get the feeling that we’re not in the middle of a massive economic recession. But of course we are, so I find it puzzling that we’re raising taxes everywhere we can. For example, the county wants to double the wheel surtax to pay for bridge maintenance.
Keep in mind that the only reason they don’t have enough money to pay for their bridges now is due to their poor planning and decision making in the past when they chose to eliminate the cumulative bridge fund. But this isn’t solely on the county anymore as the city is preparing to collect 35% of this tax increase for its own use.
Another tax increase is coming thanks to your local state legislators creating the new Capital Improvement Board - including Senator Long who sounded quite excited talking about it on NPR a couple of days ago. This new board will take the excess food and beverage taxes that are not needed to pay down debt on the Coliseum and use it for future “Capital Projects”. This is money that could, and should, go back to the taxpayers as was promised when the 1% food and beverage tax was created years ago.
On top of that, city sewer customers are likely going to see their bills triple in order to fix the Combined Sewage Overflow problem mandated by the EPA. And don’t forget there was also a push to double the alcohol tax before public outrage killed it.
With the price of materials and wages falling I guess I just don’t understand why the government needs even more money - especially at a time when there’s less to go around…
Casino Whiners
Am I the only one getting a kick out of the traditional media whining about the Henry administration not being “open” regarding the lobbyist hired to push for a casino referendum? The mayor has stated over and over again that he wants a referendum yet they chide him for not showing leadership? Look, it’s the worst kept secret in the city that Henry would like to see a casino but the mayor is doing the right thing by allowing the people to decide. Here’s an example of the whining from a local paper’s editorial staff:
Legislators repeatedly sent the message that they were not going to stick their necks out for a casino referendum without full support from the city for its success – otherwise, why have a referendum?
I find it comical that they characterize the call for a referendum as “sticking their necks out” - could anything be less controversial than that? And whether or not the city wants it to succeed is really beyond the point; “success” is guaranteed because the people will get the final say. And to answer the editorial’s question, that is the reason to have a referendum. I know this populism thing scares them but I would think they at least understand the basic premise behind a referendum.
The traditional media’s faux outrage is just comical. They are shocked(!) to find that the city has paid for a lobbyist to push for what they’ve been publicly requesting for the past several months.
Given the administration’s willingness to announce the contracts to study gambling, the public cannot help inferring that its silence on the lobbying contracts means the mayor wasn’t eager to inform citizens he was actively seeking a referendum – before he commissioned the studies.
Wasn’t eager to inform citizens he was seeking a referendum? Is there a citizen in the city who didn’t already know this? The poor traditional media feels so slighted that they actually had to do some work instead of waiting for the next administration press release. This is much to do about nothing - inside baseball crap being blown out of proportion by the media.
Mayor Henry wants a referendum, he’s pushing for it at the statehouse and that is the right thing to do. It’s what should have been done leading up to Harrison Square. Of course the same people whining about the mayor’s “lack of openness” probably wouldn’t have liked the outcome of that vote so I can see why entrusting us lowly citizens to make our own decisions would scare them…
Not My Kind Of Luck
Yesterday I attended the first birthday party of my buddy’s son. At the party I was talking to his brother and asked him who he bet on in the upcoming Kentucky Derby. He said he put $100 to show on the longshot - #8.
I really didn’t think much of it (I didn’t even get to watch the race this year) until this morning when I decided to check the results. Much to my surprise #8 won the race at 50-1 odds. I looked at the payout and figured he had just won $1200 - quite a nice payday.
But it turns out his buddy that placed the bet misunderstood what he wanted and made a different bet. Fortunately he put $50 to win, place AND show on #8 - winning him a cool five large. Like I said, ain’t my kind of luck…
Mayor Henry In Traffic Accident (UPDATE)
Update: Looks like the Mayor is all right. Here’s a press release from the city about the accident:
Fort Wayne, Ind. – Mayor Tom Henry was uninjured following a minor traffic accident early this afternoon on the city’s northeast side.
The incident occurred at the intersection of State Boulevard and Eade Avenue at 1:05 p.m. Mayor Henry returned to work for the afternoon.
Mayor Tom Henry was just involved in a traffic accident on State Street. Word is he got out of the car and was making phone calls so he’s probably ok. I’m sure the news will be on the scene shortly…
H/T: Brian Spaulding
