Today we're going to talk about the proposed Wyndham Hotel incentive package that began as an $8 Million Dollar deal and has since been whittled down to $1.98 Million Dollars according to an article in today's News & Record. Let's see how it stands up to Mayor Vaughan's "strategic formula."
According to the City of Greensboro Economic Development Guidelines incentives can be up to $1,000 per full time job created or $1500 for high tech jobs. Being that the newspaper article states that 67.9 percent of the 168 jobs created would pay less than $30,000 per year I seriously doubt they qualify as high tech jobs. That comes to $11,785.71 per job created.
Over eleven times the amount allowed by Mayor Vaughan's "strategic formula."
In a discussion concerning the Wyndham incentive package on my own Facebook page local business man Eric Robert asked:
"As of last year, each incentive item on the agenda is supposed to have the name of the sponsor council member attached to it...who' s name is on this one? Tony do you know? Could only be one of two... And if there is no name, then how do such large incentives get to the public hearing stage?"
Greensboro City Councilman Tony Wilkins replied:
"Eric, I asked the exact question this past week. I did not get an answer."
So not only is the Greensboro City staff and City Council breaking the City of Greensboro Economic Development Guidelines by over 11 times the amount allowed but they are also breaking rules that require that all incentives include the name of the sponsoring council member on the agenda.
In other words: a cover-up is currently in the works. A cover-up that is even being kept secret from duly elected City Council members. My thanks to Councilman Wilkins for making that fact public.
So much for Nancy Baracat Vaughan's "strategic formula."
Of course, Mayor Vaughan, the secret sponsor of the incentive package and city staff will argue that the incentive package comes under Greensboro's Urban Development Investment Guidelines aka, an excuse to spend taxpayer monies on anything Greensboro's elites want to build at taxpayers' expense.
Yes, the project qualifies under Greensboro's Urban Development Investment Guidelines but then so did Roy Carroll's townhouse. So would your house if you built it in the right location and included commercial rental properties or a parking garage underneath. As a matter of fact: almost any commercial project you could possibly dream up could be tweaked to fit within Greensboro's Urban Development Investment Guidelines and it doesn't matter how many jobs you bring to Greensboro. Hell, your project could qualify if your plan takes jobs away from Greensboro provided you score high enough in the other categories. But hey, don't take my word for it, read it for yourself.
After all, that was the plan all along.
So will the $1.98 Million Dollar incentive package to the Wyndham Hotel Group work for Greensboro? If Greensboro's Urban Development Investment Guidelines are such a great way of bringing jobs to Greensboro then why is Greensboro currently ranked the second hungriest city in the United States of America.
Here's a better idea, a counter proposal: The City of Greensboro offers to build the entire parking garage and hotel structure and lease it long term to the Wyndham Hotel Group with the hotel group picking up the cost of the interior as is customary in commercial leasing. If Kaplan, Kern and Greg Dillon sign on the dotted line they get their deal. If the hotel is in fact a money maker then that's the best deal going for the Wyndham Hotel Group.
I'm betting Dillon high tails it back to Washington, DC leaving Kaplan and Kern looking like the two bit hustlers we all know them to be.
Continue reading Incentives In Greensboro: Part 16 beginning Sunday Jan 26, 2014 at 5:00 am EST.
