I stole the following Op-ed From the News & Record in its entirety:
"Should $40 million of taxpayer money be used to build a Greensboro performing arts center? Consider the following:
Over the last several years, the city has cut services and laid off employees because of recession-induced revenue problems. Citizens who formerly received those services have been hurt, as have the employees who lost their jobs. This is not the time to put $40 million of public money into a performing arts center, particularly one that consultants recognize will be primarily enjoyed by the wealthy.
The economic impact study commissioned by the arts center task force estimates 268 full-time-equivalent jobs will be created by the facility. Two things are worth noting about that figure. One is that the estimate is for Guilford County, not Greensboro. The other is that the task force asked for a gross analysis when it should have requested a net analysis. A net analysis estimates the household income and jobs created by a performing arts center, the household income and jobs lost at other arts venues such as Triad Stage and Broach Theater, and then subtracts the losses from the gains to arrive at the net gain. A gross analysis ignores the job losses, thereby exaggerating the economic impact. Job creation matters, and the task force has been disingenuous by not being clear it requested a gross analysis; hence, the jobs figure is inappropriately high.
It took a number of email exchanges with the task force’s paid project manager and a Community Foundation leader before they would admit that the task force had requested a gross analysis. Despite my urging, they have been unwilling to make public that the arts center would bring Greensboro fewer than 268 jobs.
The News & Record has reported on recent efforts on the part of the mayor and City Council to assure east Greensboro residents of the city’s commitment to invest $40 million in a mix of projects, including apartments, a hotel and retail/office space, as well as working to attract a grocery to northeast Greensboro. The council should keep its commitment to invest $40 million in east Greensboro’s infrastructure.
Money is fungible, which means you can shift it from one use to another. You cannot, however, spend the same dollar twice. So, while you could move the portion of the $40 million that needs to be raised by issuing bonds from the arts center to overdue investments in the east, you have to choose. You can’t fund both with the same dollars.
(Half of the $40 million may come from the hotel tax revenues, which may only be used to promote tourism and from anticipated taxes on arts center tickets.)
City hall does not have the needed millions in hand waiting to be spent on a new arts center and would have to issue bonds. The type of bond matters a lot. General-obligation bonds pledge the city’s tax revenues to pay them off and must be approved by voters. Revenue bonds require no referendum, for they are paid off by revenue — not taxes — from the project such as part of water fees used to pay for bonds issued to upgrade the city’s water system.
To ensure our say as to whether our tax dollars should go to the arts center, we need to make it clear to council members that we expect them to stand by their Dec. 4 vote to bring taxpayer funding of the arts center to the public in a referendum. Not allowing voters to approve or disapprove of using bonds for this project would be fundamentally undemocratic.
Larry Morse is retired from the N.C. A&T Department of Economics."
Might I add that the economic impact study appears to have been done by the same morons who botched the entire downtown parking study.
