MASON CITY – The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors has approved $500,000 in aid for a redevelopment project in downtown Mason City.
Eric Bookmeyer, Brent Trout, Alex Kuhn and other officials attended Tuesday’s supervisors meeting and lobbied for financial assistance to support a new development in downtown Mason City involving an ice arena, parking ramp, hotel and more.
The supervisors agreed to give $200,000 in the first fiscal year and $100,000 for the next 3 years, for a total of $500,000.
According to a county official:
The Board authorized the Chair to sign a letter of support and commitment for Mason City’s application to the Iowa Reinvestment Act program. The county agreed to commit $500,000 over the next 4 years towards the arena project with $200,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, and $100,000 in each of the three following fiscal years (through the FY ending 6/30/2019). The funding strategy is similar to what the Board has employed in other public-private partnership projects with Clear Lake (CLEAR Project) and Mason City (Hotel).
The potential sources of funds include a mixture of local option sales tax revenue earmarked for economic development purposes and capital improvements funds derived from the sale of county land and granting of easements.
The funding is, of course, contingent on the city’s Iowa Reinvestment Act application being approved by the state.
The fact is, this is just a hobby for our elected officials to play developer with our tax dollars. There isn’t a thinker or statesman in the whole dam bunch. That includes the Supervisors, Mayor, Council, and Chamber of Commerce.
The taxpayers have been forced to sign on to all these projects over the last 30+ years and all we have to show for our money is “stuff”.
No real growth for the middle/working class that would benefit their income and long range future.
Another head…
Head shaker!
You ever get the notion that the Board of Supervisors have been meeting privately with the Chamber and Bookmeyer?
They sure passed this quickly. No public hearings? No community input?
What kind of government is this?
Wake up folks.
Oh, just think, if we had given the millions and millions of dollars away to employers to bring jobs to North Iowa what we would have now.
Instead we have a defunct mall and nothing to show for our money!
Another excellent point. People are privately in an uproar over this deal. It reeks of secrecy and more deals done on cocktail napkins. What has happened to open government?
@NIT-It will be just like the Northbridge project that cost the taxpayers millions. As a matter of fact I will be it is not paid off yet. And, Southbridge was another money pit for the taxpayers. we finally paid that off about six years ago and now they want to put the city taxpayers in debt again. The council meeting was a set up deal if there ever was one. They brought in all the hockey supporters and the establishment supporters to make it look good. 150 people my butt. Why should that
cxont.-of people dictate what the rest of us are going to do. we had a vote and the city majority said “NO” but the special interest is going to do it any way.
What a load of crap Bookmeyer has stated that there was not going to be any taxpayer money in this project NOW THIS. This bunch we have as city leaders have no problem lying to the people. Hopefully the council will not let this thing go forward. Hell they already did a feasibility study that showed these things are money losers and will cost the taxpayers.
RUKidding-exactly. And these fools will fall for it just like they always do. Everytime the city government has done anything like this it was a epic failure and the taxpayers took it in the shorts,
It’s not notice when everything else fails (mall defunct) you throw it back on the private sector to bail them out? Get over it! big business wants nothing to do with downtown Mason City (UNLESS) you give them TIF which means the private citizen will give them a bunch of free money and the state taxpayers (US) gives them more money (MILLIONS FREE) and tif means their property tax bill is payed by the private sector because public servants generate NO income. Look at your property tax form…
If they get out of this for only $500k, they will get by cheaper than the taxpayers of Mason City will.
But there is no tax money involved in this. All county money is from taxes. We are being had, again. We could have fixed a lot of roads with 1/2 million dollars.