"Private donors have pledged $50 million to build an events center, children’s museum and park next to the baseball stadium, which also could be used for other sports."
Susan Ladd, financial illiterate
Faux investigative/opinion writer
Propagandist
"All High Point leaders are asking of the county is to forgo collection of any extra tax revenue generated by the projects in the stadium district until the city can pay off the bonds it will sell to finance construction."
Susan Ladd, financial illiterate,
who didn't look into what the numbers were,
as she can't understand basic accounting
.
.
"...there is no better time to commit to a project than when it reaches a critical mass of support from public and private entities, as this one clearly has, having received a near unanimous vote from the council, significant commitment from developers, and private donations that substantially topped the stated goal.
...As a group, the commissioners have a strong contrarian impulse that surfaces periodically. It showed in their handling of Say Yes to Education"
Susan Ladd,
who totally missed the Say Yes to Education fraud
.
.
"Commissioner Skip Alston said he is worried about the taxpayers of High Point, who would be stuck with the bill if the project fails. The responsibility for these decisions and their consequences rests with the High Point City Council, not the county commissioners."
Susan Ladd
"Even when Greensboro’s minor-league ballpark was being financed completely with private funds, there was enough opposition to produce a “no downtown stadiums” referendum in 2003. Nearly 60 percent of voters rejected that measure, as well as the City Council candidates who opposed the stadium."
Susan Ladd
http://www.greensboro.com/blogs/around_town/susan-ladd-guilford-county-commissioners-should-support-stadium/article_f24d5709-c776-5bd3-860b-5b6a4098334c.html
.
.
And from Scott Yost at Roy's Rhino;
"...High Point officials argue that the project will bring a great deal of economic development to downtown High Point and therefore increase property values in the area, and they say the county should use almost all of Guilford County's increased tax revenue for about two decades to help repay the cost of building the stadium. However, the commissioners have been asking a lot of questions and some commissioners have been dissatisfied with the answers.
At the Sept. 7 meeting, Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad blasted County Manager Marty Lawing about a Tuesday, Sept. 5 email from Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis regarding the values of properties that would be used to generate the revenue to pay for the stadium project.
There are about 1,050 pieces of property in a 649-acre "stadium influence zone" that would form the tax base used to calculate future revenues. The list of property values included a host of valuable nontaxable properties, owned by governments, churches, nonprofits and other buildings, including the county's courthouse and jail in High Point. It also included some mystery properties with no names or addresss and some where large values were listed in 2008 but a value of $0 was listed for 2012 and subsequent years.
The commissioners said the inclusion of those properties skewed the numbers in two ways: It exaggerated the declines in tax revenue from that area over the years and it also overstated the amount of revenue that could be generated from the area.
"There were 121 properties that were included that shouldn't have been," Conrad said sternly at the meeting. "When you put a spreadsheet out and you show a property value decrease of 19 percent, that number is not even close. Why was that sent to this board? Why was that sent to this board in that fashion?"
Lawing looked very uncomfortable as Conrad chastised him and the Tax Department.
"I'll apologize for that," Lawing said. "There was a misunderstanding."
"I'm not trying to beat you up," Conrad said, "but when I look on here and see First Baptist Church of High Point - are we charging them property taxes? I don't think we're charging them. We have our own property, the Russell Street building, on here."
...One of the criticisms has been that the High Point City Council didn't hold a public hearing on the matter.
..."I kept on looking this over," Henning said at the meeting. "I had a couple of conversations with the commissioners and I said, 'This can't be right; there's no way that something this egregious could go out to a board, something that is this sloppy.'"
Henning said everyone had been talking about a loss of a quarter billion dollars in property value in downtown High Point since 2008, but he said it really was much less than that.
"That number is completely fictitious," Henning said. "It doesn't exist. When you take off the public buildings, it's about $150 million."
...Henning continued undaunted: "I've been trying to get to yes on this thing and I've just been asking for facts. I'm not going to beat up on the City of High Point. I mean, the lack of initiative from our staff to get the numbers right is pathetic. And here we are - they want a decision from us and we can't give them one because the numbers that they are using to start this whole conversation are wrong. This is completely unacceptable."
Lawing apologized again.
"I understand and I agree, and I apologize for that," he said.
...Commissioner Alan Branson had strong words for High Point officials. He said he was "somewhat disgusted" with some comments made about the commissioners by High Point leaders.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips said of the public hearing request: "It was, frankly, a strange request given that the citizens of High Point have not yet been heard from by their City Council ... I will not vote in favor of this [holding a public hearing]. I do not believe it is appropriate for us to get involved at this time."
Conrad said this week he still wasn't getting any satisfactory answers from High Point.
"How do you not know this - and what else don't you know about this project?" he asked.
He said some of the mistakes were "clearly obvious" and were ones he was able to see with a cursory review of the spreadsheet. He said it drastically skews the numbers and makes a huge difference.
"This is not politics, it's math," Conrad said.
This week Henning said that, given the ineptitude in this case, there was nothing wrong with commissioners pointing out those mistakes at a public meeting.
..."We're not getting the real numbers so we don't know," Henning said. "I don't know that any data I've been given is correct."
He also said that it's been hard to get straight answers.
"It's like you are buying a house and they drive you by the entrance and say, 'Well, there it is; you've seen enough - now buy it.'"
Henning said that for months High Point said it was asking for one financing method from the county but, when the formal request finally came to the board, a different funding process was being asked for.
"First they're playing fast and lose with the language and then they come to us and say, 'Oh by the way, that financing method that we've been talking about for eight months - well, it's something else," Henning said.
...High Point's mayor also spoke to a concern Alston raised recently: That the City Council hadn't formally voted to make the request for the revenue sharing agreement with the county. Bencini said an April vote by the High Point City Council to move the baseball project forward empowered city staff to make the request of Guilford County. Bencini also said there was no question the High Point City Council was overwhelmingly behind the stadium.
...Project opponents from High Point and Colfax spoke on the risk to city and county taxpayers, the questionable draw of baseball teams and other concerns.
...Here are some of the questions commissioners asked.
* "If the new development in the target area does not materialize as projected, how will the City cover the deficit in revenue vs. the annual debt service requirement? Be specific as to the source of funding and your back up plan."
* "Explain in detail why Guilford County's participation is crucial to the success of the project. Some think the city has the fiscal capacity to obtain approval to issue $35 million without county participation."
* "What factors are driving city's the project schedule? (LGC [Local Government Commission] calendar, Opening Day for 2019 Baseball season, etc.)"
* "The proponents of the project have said 'The County has nothing to lose by supporting the project.' Can you summarize what is meant by this statement?"
There were also questions about the tax revenue projections used in High Point's calculations of future estimated tax revenues, one about the specific tax-exempt status of a nonprofit that will construct a proposed children's museum, events center and park.
...Both Bencini and Qubein have said Guilford County's funding is a critical part of the project. Several commissioners said the hospitality shown by Qubein at the High Point University event was impressive but it does not mitigate the fact that there are still unanswered questions. Branson said that event was "absolutely fantastic" but he still had questions..."
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/rhino-times/september-14-2017/2017091301/#6
Susan Ladd, financial illiterate
Faux investigative/opinion writer
Propagandist
Where is the confirmation of the $50 million in hand?
Does "pledged" mean like the money pledged for Say Yes to Education?
Is the math like the math used to send Susan's kid to college on the dole for a year,
which was never disclosed by the News and Record?
"All High Point leaders are asking of the county is to forgo collection of any extra tax revenue generated by the projects in the stadium district until the city can pay off the bonds it will sell to finance construction."
Susan Ladd, financial illiterate,
who didn't look into what the numbers were,
as she can't understand basic accounting
.
.
"...there is no better time to commit to a project than when it reaches a critical mass of support from public and private entities, as this one clearly has, having received a near unanimous vote from the council, significant commitment from developers, and private donations that substantially topped the stated goal.
...As a group, the commissioners have a strong contrarian impulse that surfaces periodically. It showed in their handling of Say Yes to Education"
Susan Ladd,
who totally missed the Say Yes to Education fraud
.
.
"Commissioner Skip Alston said he is worried about the taxpayers of High Point, who would be stuck with the bill if the project fails. The responsibility for these decisions and their consequences rests with the High Point City Council, not the county commissioners."
Susan Ladd
How so, if the county loses tax revenues if the project fails?
"Even when Greensboro’s minor-league ballpark was being financed completely with private funds, there was enough opposition to produce a “no downtown stadiums” referendum in 2003. Nearly 60 percent of voters rejected that measure, as well as the City Council candidates who opposed the stadium."
Susan Ladd
Why not let Guilford County and High Point voters vote on it?
http://www.greensboro.com/blogs/around_town/susan-ladd-guilford-county-commissioners-should-support-stadium/article_f24d5709-c776-5bd3-860b-5b6a4098334c.html
.
.
And from Scott Yost at Roy's Rhino;
"...High Point officials argue that the project will bring a great deal of economic development to downtown High Point and therefore increase property values in the area, and they say the county should use almost all of Guilford County's increased tax revenue for about two decades to help repay the cost of building the stadium. However, the commissioners have been asking a lot of questions and some commissioners have been dissatisfied with the answers.
At the Sept. 7 meeting, Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad blasted County Manager Marty Lawing about a Tuesday, Sept. 5 email from Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis regarding the values of properties that would be used to generate the revenue to pay for the stadium project.
There are about 1,050 pieces of property in a 649-acre "stadium influence zone" that would form the tax base used to calculate future revenues. The list of property values included a host of valuable nontaxable properties, owned by governments, churches, nonprofits and other buildings, including the county's courthouse and jail in High Point. It also included some mystery properties with no names or addresss and some where large values were listed in 2008 but a value of $0 was listed for 2012 and subsequent years.
Still no mention of Roy Carroll's deal to put a hotel across the street
by the Rhino Times's Scott Yost
The commissioners said the inclusion of those properties skewed the numbers in two ways: It exaggerated the declines in tax revenue from that area over the years and it also overstated the amount of revenue that could be generated from the area.
"There were 121 properties that were included that shouldn't have been," Conrad said sternly at the meeting. "When you put a spreadsheet out and you show a property value decrease of 19 percent, that number is not even close. Why was that sent to this board? Why was that sent to this board in that fashion?"
Bullshit math, like the math used to sell the Tanger money pit
Lawing looked very uncomfortable as Conrad chastised him and the Tax Department.
"I'll apologize for that," Lawing said. "There was a misunderstanding."
"I'm not trying to beat you up," Conrad said, "but when I look on here and see First Baptist Church of High Point - are we charging them property taxes? I don't think we're charging them. We have our own property, the Russell Street building, on here."
...One of the criticisms has been that the High Point City Council didn't hold a public hearing on the matter.
..."I kept on looking this over," Henning said at the meeting. "I had a couple of conversations with the commissioners and I said, 'This can't be right; there's no way that something this egregious could go out to a board, something that is this sloppy.'"
Henning said everyone had been talking about a loss of a quarter billion dollars in property value in downtown High Point since 2008, but he said it really was much less than that.
"That number is completely fictitious," Henning said. "It doesn't exist. When you take off the public buildings, it's about $150 million."
...Henning continued undaunted: "I've been trying to get to yes on this thing and I've just been asking for facts. I'm not going to beat up on the City of High Point. I mean, the lack of initiative from our staff to get the numbers right is pathetic. And here we are - they want a decision from us and we can't give them one because the numbers that they are using to start this whole conversation are wrong. This is completely unacceptable."
Lawing apologized again.
"I understand and I agree, and I apologize for that," he said.
...Commissioner Alan Branson had strong words for High Point officials. He said he was "somewhat disgusted" with some comments made about the commissioners by High Point leaders.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips said of the public hearing request: "It was, frankly, a strange request given that the citizens of High Point have not yet been heard from by their City Council ... I will not vote in favor of this [holding a public hearing]. I do not believe it is appropriate for us to get involved at this time."
Conrad said this week he still wasn't getting any satisfactory answers from High Point.
"How do you not know this - and what else don't you know about this project?" he asked.
He said some of the mistakes were "clearly obvious" and were ones he was able to see with a cursory review of the spreadsheet. He said it drastically skews the numbers and makes a huge difference.
"This is not politics, it's math," Conrad said.
This week Henning said that, given the ineptitude in this case, there was nothing wrong with commissioners pointing out those mistakes at a public meeting.
..."We're not getting the real numbers so we don't know," Henning said. "I don't know that any data I've been given is correct."
He also said that it's been hard to get straight answers.
"It's like you are buying a house and they drive you by the entrance and say, 'Well, there it is; you've seen enough - now buy it.'"
Henning said that for months High Point said it was asking for one financing method from the county but, when the formal request finally came to the board, a different funding process was being asked for.
"First they're playing fast and lose with the language and then they come to us and say, 'Oh by the way, that financing method that we've been talking about for eight months - well, it's something else," Henning said.
...High Point's mayor also spoke to a concern Alston raised recently: That the City Council hadn't formally voted to make the request for the revenue sharing agreement with the county. Bencini said an April vote by the High Point City Council to move the baseball project forward empowered city staff to make the request of Guilford County. Bencini also said there was no question the High Point City Council was overwhelmingly behind the stadium.
...Project opponents from High Point and Colfax spoke on the risk to city and county taxpayers, the questionable draw of baseball teams and other concerns.
...Here are some of the questions commissioners asked.
* "If the new development in the target area does not materialize as projected, how will the City cover the deficit in revenue vs. the annual debt service requirement? Be specific as to the source of funding and your back up plan."
* "Explain in detail why Guilford County's participation is crucial to the success of the project. Some think the city has the fiscal capacity to obtain approval to issue $35 million without county participation."
* "What factors are driving city's the project schedule? (LGC [Local Government Commission] calendar, Opening Day for 2019 Baseball season, etc.)"
* "The proponents of the project have said 'The County has nothing to lose by supporting the project.' Can you summarize what is meant by this statement?"
There were also questions about the tax revenue projections used in High Point's calculations of future estimated tax revenues, one about the specific tax-exempt status of a nonprofit that will construct a proposed children's museum, events center and park.
...Both Bencini and Qubein have said Guilford County's funding is a critical part of the project. Several commissioners said the hospitality shown by Qubein at the High Point University event was impressive but it does not mitigate the fact that there are still unanswered questions. Branson said that event was "absolutely fantastic" but he still had questions..."
http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/rhino-times/september-14-2017/2017091301/#6
