I just got a River City Renaissance Project newsletter with my utility bill.
Second paragraph is asked the question: How will MC Taxpayers Be Affected?
Answer: No General Obligation Bonds repayable with debt service property tax will be sold. Other forms of funding have been put in place to cover the cost of the project.
This is a bald-faced lie.
I have an email from a city finance department top employeee dated 10/2/17 that states the $14.4M bond issue WILL carry the full faith and credit of the City and that a tax levy will be possible to fund the semi annual debt service payments.
He gave the same answer to the arena bonds. General Obligation bonds are eligible for tax levy debt service support.
These are General Obligation Bonds to be sold if approved by 60% of voters on Nov. 7th.
THE CITIZENS ARE THE BANK IN THIS DEAL.
Then the lie is repeated on the back page bottom section.
“No general obligation bonds repayable with debt service property
tax levy will be sold to support this project”.
Somebody in MC City Hall is lying to the citizens on this legal issue.
Who is the author of this newsletter?
Did they show it to the City Finance Director?? Pending interim City Administrator?
The Project Cost chart is a elementary school level exercise to fool the public. NO dollar Estimates of any of the listed revenue sources. Treats the MC citizens like a bunch of naive first graders.
The $9.5M of state funding will be strictly from sales tax on the Gatehouse hotel room sales and any other NEW business facility that gets built within this little 25 acre Urban Renewal District in downtown MC. As of now can you name any new businesses coming? No?
Even at best the state $9.5M will only cover the 20 year cost of interest on these $26.5M of new General Obligation Bonds we are voting on Nov. 7th. That leaves the $26.5M for these other sources with the check marks, but NO figures, to fund.
PLUS the City debt service tax levy when these unknown check marks prove insufficient to do so.
Mason City residents: Demand the Opinion letter on these two bond sale amounts from the City’s Bond Counsel Attorney in Des Moines, NOW. That will set the record straight.
This lying has to be called out and ended.
A Concerned Citizen
Mason City, Iowa
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NOTE: The opinions expressed in letters to the editor are not necessarily those of NorthIowaToday.com.
Hmmmmmmm me .
Worth county superviors (corporate owned) have been screwing the property owners with thier T I F Lies for over 10 years – swamp rats like the Russian uranium deal – Phony liars.
Yet you still have among the lowest property tax levies in the state at $25/1000. Hmmmmmmm.
I just posted a long reply to someone that is trying to sell this crazy project to the unsuspecting taxpayers, I know it’s long but read it anyway.
That last post is telling for sure. What is also true is this project will never cash flow and Mason City Taxpayers are on the hook to pay off those General Obligation Bonds.
The City Administrator said that if the project don’t cash flow, we can restructure the bond debt after 15 years to lower the cities bond payment. The project will never provide enough cash flow to make the entire bond payment.
The Taxpayers are going to pay if this crazy project passes.
OUR ELECTED & CITY OFFICIALS ARE LYING SCOUNDRELS. Mason City is really screwed up.
They are using TIF which are diverted PROPERTY TAXES!
The are using HOTEL/MOTEL TAXES which should go into the General Fund to RELIEVE OUR PROPERTY TAXES!
They are using part of the ONE CENT SALES TAX to fund the project that also should go to RELIEVE OUR PROPERTY TAXES!
I pray every day the people go out and vote NO!
TIF is leveraging tax liabilities created by an impovement to incentivize development. It’s money that simply doesn’t exist without the improvement. Better yet, once the TIF bond is paid off, you have created lots and lots of taxable valuation that otherwise wouldn’t exist. It’s a great tool to spur development as it has minimal impact to tax payers.
In a straight up TIF project it is supposed to worked the way you describe. Unfortunately for the taxpayers of Mason City it NEVER works like that. The money from TIF never ends up benefiting in a meaningful way, the Taxpayers of Mason City.
1st the existing mall was built for about 15 million dollars and originally the Centers Companies agreed to set their valuation so it would pay $800,000.00 per year to pay off a 7=1/2 million dollar General Obligation Bond issue for the original TIF district that was set for the Southbridge project.
The Centers Company went bankrupt and the Mason City City Council agreed to lower their valuation down so they only had to pay $400,000.00 per year and the Taxpayers of Mason City got stuck paying the other $400,000 per year. Somewhere along the line it went bankrupt 1 or 2 more times until this last fellow picks up the mall for $1,500,000.00 and some back taxes. (which the new owner has yet to pay)
The current valuation was set artifically low at $1,500,000.00 and currently only pays a little under $49,000.00 per year in property taxes.
THE CURRENT LOW PROPERTY VALUATION WAS SET ARTIFICIALLY LOW IN ANTICIPATION OF THE CROOKED PROJECT. Thus TIF is managed improperly ON PURPOSE. we call that crooked skullduggery.
To your 2nd point that we will gain tax revenue in the future when the bonds are all paid off is NOT true in Mason City. Because we have a smart bunch of insiders that watch real close when the bonds are due to be paid off they have yet another TIF project in the works and divert the TIF money to the NEW TIF project before the taxpayers of Mason City ever see any real benefit.
This project is no different. The Hyatt Hotel is being given the land to build on which currently is the parking lot to the south of Yonkers. They are using that land as $1,500,000.00 as collateral to get the 12 or so million dollar loan to build the hotel. The hotel developer has NO SKIN IN THE GAME.
In fact all the principles involved in doing the DEAL will make their money UP FRONT. And they will all make millions UP FRONT. It don’t matter if the dam thing is successful or not. They will all be long gone while the TAXPAYERS OF MASON CITY ARE LEFT PAYING THE BILL.
I know how TIF is supposed to work but it misused in Mason City. Sad to say!
The fact of the matter is this whole deal has been conceived so poorly that has no chance of success even if we passed the bond issue.
Some of this sounds like criminal actions. Setting the property tax assessment artificially low… who was behind that, how did it get done, who played ball in the courthouse? Tom Miller, please visit Mason City.
WoW-I had forgotten all about Miller and his scams to get what he wanted.
Just when I think NIT readers can’t possibly get any dumber….The assessor must set the taxable valuation at fair market value. Since the mall just sold for $1.5M, it’s a pretty simple exercise to determine its fair market value.
LVS you dumb ass, NIT Publisher is referring to Miller the Iowa AG. The Miller you are referencing is Carl. You are in such a hurry to be negative that you put your foot in your mouth ……… again.
OK-My mistake on this one. What about all the mistakes you make. Especially the one your mother made when she had you.
LVS you started to redeem yourself with the apology, but then took a cheap childish shot. You never learn you old ass kissing bastard.
Glad you liked it. I never did care about the opinion of a Dumb Ass like you.
I’ll blow up your 10,000 word ‘argument’ in just 3 words. SUNK COST FALLACY. Southbirdge Mall and your emotions related to that 40 -year old investment are IRRELEVANT to this opportunity.
O.K. what about the Central Park Scam, the Park Inn Scam, and don’t forget one of the biggest scams of all that we are still paying for, the Northbridge scam.
Park In. Is a great example of a home run! Tax payers contributed exactly nothing and now we have this great Mecca of architecture bringing thousands of visitors each year! Despite the negative nellies in this town, we finally hit one out of the ‘park’.
So far, I consider the Park Inn to be a success and an asset to Mason City.
That is a damn lie. What about the million tax dollars spent on the Central Park scam? That was part of the Park inn Scam. What about all the infastructure done at taxpayer expense? What about the streetscape expense that they just had to have to support the old whore house?
You are the expert on the old whore houses in town Larry. You were the towel boy.
My knowledge of whore houses comes from watching drunks like you getting kicked out of them.
That does not change the fact that the TIF money will not be available for infastructure and tax relief for 20 years. And if they default (and they will) we will be on the hook for all that debt as taxpayers. It is a lose, lose situation and the liars who are promoting it will be long gone after fleecing the taxpayers again.
That does not change the fact that the TIF money will not be available for infastructure and tax relief for 20 years. And if they default (and they will) we will be on the hook for all that debt as taxpayers. It is a lose, lose situation and the liars who are promoting it will be long gone after fleecing the taxpayers again.
If the project inst built, the TIF money will never be available for infrastructure or tax relief because the improvement which generates the tax revenue doesn’t exist.
Seems like a much better deal to allow the increase in tax revenue generated by an improvement to go as an developer incentive so that the community reaps the benefits in years 20 and beyond (as opposed to never reaping the benefits).
This is true. They are taking dollars out of other funds – dollars that could go to a range of other NEEDS in town – to prop up this deal Eric has been chasing for 4 years at the behest of his masters in 9 North Federal Avenue. We’ve been taken to the cleaners by this clan.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Eric ended up working for the Chamber when he is done destroying our city. Or he will bail out of town before the taxpayers catch up with him when this all falls apart.
When he sees the procession of hundreds of lit torches marching east from city hall, down State Street towards his house, he’ll probably start up the moving truck and blaze a path back to Nebraska. That’s my best guess.
Very unprofessional of you little man.
What worth county supervisor has a winter home in Florida and we heard owns the new truck stop in Floyd ,Ia. ???
Worth county has the HIGHEST debt per capita in Iowa – Read the charts in your democrap owned liberal Glob Gazette awhile back. BTW you creepy crooks are now trying to get Worth county taxpayers to cough up 26 MILLION to give to Alliant energy for a gas pipeline that benefits large corporations at our expense. I know your a lying demorats by your childish refusal to understand the TRUTH. Kiss off.
Worth County property taxes are cheeeeeaaaaaaapppppp. We’re looking at levies around $25 per 1000. I pay nearly triple that!
A natural gas line isn’t a bad idea. Worth County might have the least amount of commercial/industrial development in the state and having access to natural gas might lure some real tax paying industry to that shrinking, dirt poor County.
“The Project Cost chart is a elementary school level exercise to fool the public. NO dollar Estimates of any of the listed revenue sources. Treats the MC citizens like a bunch of naive first graders.”
Estimates have been given. Trout gave estimates at both of the forums he hosted.
“The $9.5M of state funding will be strictly from sales tax on the Gatehouse hotel room sales and any other NEW business facility that gets built within this little 25 acre Urban Renewal District in downtown MC. As of now can you name any new businesses coming? No?”
Sales tax from the Arena, hotel and anything new in the mall would be contained in that ‘little’ 25 acre district.
You should check with the worth county corrupt supervisors they have been pulling this con for well over 10 years – Wake up dildos – NOTHING FREE – Lies and deceit are their college major and being a demorat helps them pull this deceit and corruption off. WAKE UP !
This from the guy that claimed Worth County had the highest property taxes in Iowa?!?!?! I think stupidity is free…
“Who is the author of this newsletter?” Excellent observation and it deserves a response. Who is the Concerned Citizen who submits this opinion piece? Response?
You’re right Concerned Citizen. Here’s proof that General Obligation Bonds will be sold to support the project:
“Development Incentive for the Gatehouse Capital Project: The Gatehouse proposal includes City funding in the form of a “mezzanine” loan, which fills the gap between the developer’s equity and their traditional financing. This loan would be made with general obligation bonds and would be an “interest forgivable” loan, where Gatehouse will repay the principal (estimated to be $3,500,000 over 20 years, but could be as much as $4,300,000); however, the City will pay the interest to retire the bonds. “
Memorandum to Brent Trout, City Administrator on May 8, 2017. http://masoncity.net/files/documents/CityCouncilPacket05-11-17103600050917AM1187.pdf
Lionel-there has been one lie after another trying to sell this project. I know you are a honest man.Maybe you need to rethink your support of this farce.
Lionel-there has been one lie after another trying to sell this project. I know you are a honest man.Maybe you need to rethink your support of this farce.
Hey dummy, read the information closer. No where is the claim made that general obligation bonds are not used fort his project. The information is telling you that property taxes will not be used to repay the general obligation bonds which is indeed factual.
The real dummy here is you if you think taxes won’t be used to pay the interest or pay when the hotel crook or mall crook defaults on his payments.
The real dummy here is you if you think taxes won’t be used to pay the interest or pay when the hotel crook or mall crook defaults on his payments.
Hey dummy, if the mall defaults on their obligations relative to river city renaissance, guess what?!?! The city/County still gets their money from the tax sale! There is no risk to the tax payer in this scenario.
Are you smoking that funny shit again. City Council my butt. The taxpayers will pay for a piece of worthless property. Music Man Square failed, the Park Inn will fail and this wet dream will fail. They are all one trick pony’s.
I’ve been in county supervisor meetings where tax obligations were wiped clean – just so a sale or a demolition of property could occur. There is risk, in my opinion, here, big time. Ask the Treasurer’s Office if this has happened.
There is no risk fella’s. Try again
Go lie to someone else. We are not buying it at all.
LVS, there is NO RISK in the scenario you describe. None. Nadda. Zero.
They have always lied to get their pet projects for the elite. this time is no exception. More lies to the taxpayers and then hide it with excuses. Vote NO!
They have always lied to get their pet projects for the elite. this time is no exception. More lies to the taxpayers and then hide it with excuses. Vote NO!
Fn jerk. Double posting is symptomatic of your senile condition.
No, it is symptomatic of a asshole deleting the post and having it put back on.