So you say you’re tired of reading this over and over…. maybe I am twice as tired of writing it over and over. Have you given that any thought? Now Saturday’s Globe said they “locked” in $7 million in Des Moines. Listen, if they did or didn’t it won’t change anything. This entire proposal is one giant malignancy – and there’s a select group making sure it gets the votes.
Please don’t misconstrue the real facts; there is no prime lender, no secured franchise…. this is a giant cluster “F” is what it is. Ask yourself this… why did they hold three meetings? Have you ever seen that happen before? The answer is a resounding NO! These people are lying to the voters, they should be run out of town… Trout is leaving… the Chief of Police has submitted his application in more spots than a bedsheet in a whorehouse. When Gatehouse’s Rachie spoke from the podium and said he didn’t want to negotiate in public he was telling Bookmeyer he couldn’t drag the truth out for all to hear. But – the “yes” group doesn’t want you to dwell on these facts. They just want to drop signs all over town, driving their fancy jet black high-end SUVS, smiling in your face, waiting to grab their profits and leave YOU AND ME holding the bag later.
Are you awake?
Just what did Rachie have to say that could not have been said there and then in front of the voters….? Doesn’t that ring loud in your ears, or did it go over your head?
Do I have to remind you that it is on tape!! The loud “BUZZZ” sound coming from your TV during the city council meeting – you can’t hear the meeting. The mayor and council laughed at this recently when a citizen brought up the problem at the public podium. They literally laughed at the man – a retired wage-earner. The city website many times won’t play the meeting videos – the video player is frozen. You can’t investigate. What could possibly cause these happenstances……is this what transparency looks like? Or is this something far more sinister?
Peter Children
Mason City, Iowa
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Clear Lake doesn’t get a vote. They don’t live here and they damn sure don’t pay taxes here.
They won’t live here, but they’ll tell us what to do:
http://www.kimt.com/story/36659664/clear-lake-chamber-supports-river-city-renaissance
Elected officials are basically put in office by elite (rich) people to get what they want – basically on the property owners dime and not theirs – 2 types of crooks -elected corporate owned elected sleazy officials and the rich bitches that put them in office that want more of your money.
RISKAISSANCE PROJECT
Hey, I like the new name somebody gave this project. It really fits.
Never have figured out why there is an ongoing push to throw good money after bad trying to “revitalize” the dump of a downtown in MC. That is not/never will be a growth area going forward. As I have said in the past in the Glob comments section, just pave over the downtown and market it as the “World’s Biggest Parking Lot”.
I’ve never figured out why everybody’s vote counts exactly the same. Seems like the guy with a advanced degree in finance who pays boat loads in taxes should have more of a say than a guy who barely graduated from high school and has to work saturdays.
Wow that was kinda nasty! Sometimes common sense is better than all the education in the world. You must be very arrogant
It’s obvious that all that education they put in their brain pushes out their ability to reason. Real hard to talk sense to someone without any common sense.
Peanuts! Worth county supervisors want the property owners here to cough up $26,000,000 for a gas pipe line to the casino – kensett -CAFO;s – Bartzs hometown – and on to TPP mitchell county CAFO;s ? Nice little corporate supervisors EH ?
Google the people speaking at public meetings in favor of this, and see how many are from Mason City. Most of them aren’t, so they have no skin in the game, either. They want to say on their resumes that they were part of this big deal, but they want us to take the risk.
What ‘risk’? Will the state of Iowa default on its payments? NO. Will the TIF funds not be made? NO.
That’s because we taxpayers are the ones paying the bill. We are the ones on the hook for money even if it’s the states offering the. Money. It’sk we the taxpayers that get stuck paying , what is wrong with you anyway
You’re overstating the ‘risk’ involved with this project. The state won’t default from their obligations and the TIF money also nearly zero risk of defaulting. The rest of the funding is private investment, so if it fails, it’s the private investor and his investors that take a bath. It’s fine if you’re against the project, just be honest about it is all.
You are trying to be shrewd and it isn’t working,
We all know when you use TIF dollars for this type of project there is NOTHING IN IT FOR THE COMMUNITY but churning money into the movers and shakers pockets. This project will NOT bring any new meaningful jobs or employers to Mason City. It will not even cash flow properly. The city will NEVER receive any new tax dollars in the city coffers. AND eventually it will end up another eyesore for the city for us all to watch deteriorate.
Most people know that the “insiders” are pushing this project to make themselves a boat load of money. The politicians are pushing to put a feather in there hat so they and pat themselves on the back and say, “Look what I’ve done.” In a few years they all disappear and the local tax payers end up taking it in the shorts. The State don’t care because the money they are giving is our money anyway.
As far as your so called “private investor”? There isn’t one. We are giving Gatehouse there down payment when we give them the 1.5 million dollars worth of real estate to build on. There is a loan company that is going to loan the hotel developer money but they will end up not getting all their money back either after the hotel files for bankruptcy. And it will, guaranteed. I have witnessed too many of these kinds a projects end up on the scrape pile of failure.
You maybe shrewd but your comments are phony!
Neat. But you haven’t really identified where there is any risk to the tax payer. State money is good as guaranteed. The risk of TIF funds not coming though is nil. The risk of the private investor failing X number of years down the road is not the taxpayers risk.
All you naysayers say its too risky. But you can’t identify where there is risk, yet alone correctly quantify it.
Your statement “State money is good as guaranteed” is misleading. The city does NOT get a ‘lump sum’ multi-million dollar check from the state – whether it is $7 or $10 million or whatever number the state announces. The city must collect tax dollars in the 25-acre district downtown – but only from NEW construction businesses. That money goes to the state, then the state gives it back to MC over many years (20). Problem is, the city may NEVER collect those “millions” in tax dollars in the first place. See the problem? MC may never reach that dollar amount set by the state due to an underperforming downtown.
You do understand that there is little risk the city would not collect at least $7M in sales tax over the course of 20 years, right? Or are you just trying to be misleading???
Right off the top, you’ll be collecting sales tax AND hotel tax from the new hotel plus sales tax from events at the multi purpose arena. PLUS sales tax from whichever new businesses open within the 25 acre district. Again, naysayers are seriously overstating this risk.
Riskaissance is the real name of this project because it will NEVER cash flow and collect all the TIF dollars necessary to pay off the bonds.
The TIF dollars present very little risk to this project.
Just as you cannot evade your tax responsibilities, nor can commercial landowners. The risk of default form the city/county perspective is nearly zero.
there is risk when the arena is turned over to the mall owner and they continue to not pay their property taxes. They have not paid a dime in taxes since they bought that mall. For what little money they paid for that mall, looks like they will be happy to continue to collect lease payments until they file bankruptcy on the tax sale.
I have never seen a positive article or comment on this project from the mall owner. Doesn’t anyone find that odd? The reason seems to me that they are going to bail.
Whether or not the mall owner pays their property taxes is not a risk to the Mason City tax payer nor would it jeopardize the financing for this project. If the mall owner doesn’t pay their property tax, the city/County will get their money from the tax sale. There is NO risk to the Mason City tax payer.
You find many of them boozing it up downtown on weekends!
Taxpayers across America shelled out at least $4.8 million in 2014 to fund government-run ice rinks, and some city governments are running deficits in the tens of millions of dollars, all in an effort to subsidize ice skating and hockey playing.
The Washington Times analyzed 16 government-funded rinks — from Niagara Falls, New York, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and found all were costing taxpayers more than the revenue they were bringing in. Maintenance fees, low ticket sales and high equipment costs, such as the ice resurfacer Zamboni, all contributed to the deficit, according to the analysis.
“This is such a ludicrous waste of taxpayer money. I would say to all politicians ‘Let it go’ and not spend any more money on ice rinks,” said David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a government spending watchdog. “Ice rinks are not a priority for most citizens. Fixing the streets, making sure the people are protected, those are government’s jobs. Ice rinks are a luxury, a vanity project, and should be privately funded.”
The cost for a single surface ice skating arena can be $2 to $4 million and a twin surface ice skating facility can cost $5 to $7 million. The investment in proper research, when weighed against the facility cost, is a wise investment. Mason wants to spend $12.5 million and then rent it back. Are you people completely insane? Look who benefits – but only in the short term. The bankers, construction cos, politicians building a resume. The losers will be the property tax payers. Simple as that.
Your construction costs are ridiculously low. Lakeville, MN built a modest single sheet ice arena for $8.3M in 2007. Using very conservative rates to adjust for inflation, thats $10.1M in 2017 dollars. The Lakeville facility is a ice only facility, so the $13M we have proposed for a multi-purpose arena seems pretty reasonable (it costs more to build a multi purpose facility than a ice only facility).
To get the financing to work, we have to rent the facility from a private landlord to access TIF funds. If the city owned it, we would have to increase property taxes to repay the general obligation bonds. As currently structured, property owners will not see a increase in their property taxes to pay for the arena.
I just heard a little girl beg her mom to take her OUT of ice skating here in MC. Says she hates it, doesn’t want to do it anymore. Seen the practices, does NOT look fun AT ALL for the kids as they fall down, cry, and the moms yell “GET UP!” Pathetic living thru your kids.
I just heard two little boys beg their parents to let them play hockey. Two is more than one and in your world, anecdotal evidence appears to be king. So I win!
And the good news is, we got an OUTDOOR hockey rink for those kids to play in! FREE! No fees, TIF, magic formula needed. So your arena can be dropped right quick. Which it will be, November 7.
A general rule of thumb is that a single surface ice skating facility requires a population of 100,000 people within a five mile radius, 250,000 people within a 10 mile radius and no existing competition within these radii to be economical- ly feasible. These populations are necessary to attract skaters to fill programs, rent ice, and attend pub-lic skating sessions, hockey games, and skating competitions. It is not enough for individuals, groups or entities to rely on phone calls, per-sonal conversations, or letters of interest from prospective customers. Critical masses of population are the bedrock of an ice skating facility’s success. Planners considering locat-ing an ice skating facility need to consider this.
Source? I seriously doubt the accuracy of your claim.
Seems to an intelligent person, regional preferences weigh heavily on the demand for ice facilities. Many, many small towns in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin have ice facilities.
But thats neither here nor there. This project isn’t about building a new ice facility or building a hotel. It’s about building a multi purpose events center. The ice component and hotel are just a means of financing this quality of life enhancing project.
So you say you’re tired of reading this over and over…. That is an understatement, to be sure. You brag about fleecing people as a siding salesman and now we are supposed to take you seriously? Many are voting for this project because you are against it.
I’m right there with you
Then I find out we can build a CADILLAC ICE ARENA out by the fairgrounds on shovel ready land for $5,000,000.00. That’s 5 million dollars folks and the Ice Arena could be used YEAR AROUND and the Horse people could use the horse arena year around or the fairground could plan other events in there.
We do NOT need any of this stuff downtown and have to mortgage our homes and business for $26,000,000.00 in General Obligation Bonds that we are all going to get STUCK paying off.
No matter what they tell you this project will NEVER CASH FLOW!!
DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.
A) I seriously doubt the accuracy of your construction cost estimating. I don’t think you could put up a metal pole barn with ice equipment and homemade bleachers for $5M, yet alone a nice facility.
B) But if we do assume your figure if $5M, where does that money come from? The current proposal downtown uses funding sources that won’t increase your property tax bill (TIF, state incentives). Your $5M proposal at the fairgrounds would require general obligation bonds that are repaid from increasing citizens property tax bills.
So it’s really comparing a $13M arena downtown that costs property owners nothing or your $5M arena at the fairgrounds that property owners pay 100% for.
The money comes from the same place as scam project downtown,THE TAXPAYERS!
You don’t seem to understand. The money for the downtown project comes from new taxes and grant money that will only exist if the project in its totality are completed. those funds would not be available for a project at the fairgrounds. (No grant-because the location is outside of the reinvestment district and no TIF because if its built on public land there would be no new taxes generated.)
At least With ice arena out at the fairgrounds it would be much cheaper and a better for for everybody
Where does the money come from in your plan?!?! The TIF funds, hotel sales tax, and state incentives aren’t available for a site on the fairgrounds.
The project would be no less expensive to build at the fairgrounds then downtown. Concrete, bricks, and bar joists cost exactly the same at either site.
what you don’t seem to understand is that although you could potentially build an arena for a lesser amount. there aren’t funds available for it. you cannot use the grant money or tif funds-because they wont exist.
if it were profitable it would pay for itself, which is why we shouldn’t support Ice. I would have a different opinion about this thing if Ice didn’t control it for 6 months of the year.
The majority of the $26M is private investment, now t general obligation bonds. The general obligation bonds which would be issued (which total much, much less than $26M) are not repaid by city property owners.
Youth hockey already said they would put up 2 million. Wouldn’t that cut it down to 3 if needed? 3 million sounds a lot better than what will be paid when this deal downtown is left for the taxpayers.
So under your logic am I to understand that you think the tax payers of mason city would prefer giving 3 million dollars of local property tax payer dollars to build a 5 million dollar arena than paying ZERO local property tax dollars for a 12 million dollar multi-purpose arena?
Oh, and after we build the Ice Arena inside the old Penny’s Store “we the people” (that us taxpayers folks) are going to SIGN A LEASE with owner of Southbridge Mall and pay them $15,000 PER MONTH TO LEASE IT BACK FROM THE MALL. How insane is that????
It that isn’t bad enough after 2 years our lease payment goes up to $20,000 PER MONTH! And it continues to go up and up.
This is only THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG FOLKS!!
Hotel Developer has no skin in the game. In fact the city is GIVING him our land that is currently the Yonkers Parking Lot to build his hotel on. The land is VALUED AT $1,500,000.00. That is 1-1/2 million dollars of FREE money we are GIVING AWAY. That is just insane!!!!!!
Gatehouse the developer of the Hyatt Hotel is going to use our land that we are GIVING to Gatehouse as collateral to secure their millions of dollars of financing to build the hotel.
Gatehouse has nothing invested and they make millions just by building the hotel. It don’t have to EVER be successful. They make a ton of money just doing the deal. These people will make their money up front and be long gone. Guaranteed!
The same holds true for the Contractor that builds the 2400 seat Ice Arena for 12 million dollars. You know that contractor will be Henkel Construction Company and they will make millions building it.
All the money is made up front and all the big shots selling this crazy project don’t give a hoot that it won’t be successful. All these fat cats will make their millions and leave town and the citizens of Mason City with a long term tax burden to pay.
Was out to Papa’s for dinner tonight and talked to several folks that I had not talked to in a long time. These are political savvy people and well known. They are all voting NO.
They went on to describe this project in very unflattering terms.
Hopefully the truth about just how corrupt this project is will reach the yes vote crowd and they will come to their senses too.
At this point I am comfortable that this crazy scheme will NOT pass. Yet it is incumbent on all of us to reach out to as many voters as possible to rebut the yes vote crowd who is working very hard to harm this community.
VOTE NO NO NO
You could drill a hole in the roof, then fill it with corn and make more money than this scam they want to pull over your eyes.
All the dullards in this town would turn away your proposal too. Drilling that hole sounds like construction work. And construction work brings in Mexicans. And we know how this town feels about that.
Dumping money into something that has no real world profit potential seems like an idiotic thing to do, does it not? The numbers do not add up, I’m not even sure why anyone would believe this is going to do anything but harm. Free money is what our city government is preaching, remember that money is not really free. It has to come from somewhere. If I read correctly, tif can be used for many different things. Why not start repairing other areas of town? Malls are dying out all over the country. Online shopping, and big box stores have taken over. An ice arena for a select few isn’t going to pay the bills. The “free money” will be there in the future when something better is found. We need new leadership, not the same crap over and over. The long term answers take time, and compromise.
Vote it down! Let younkers close and let the mall close for good. im sure some company will come along and buy it up start a business that will help us all.