IS IT TRUE May 1, 2012
IS IT TRUE that the 2012 rendition of the Evansville Redevelopment Commission has a line item on its agenda today that calls for the formal action of placing the deal that was made with City Centre Properties into default?…that while this is a necessary and correct action it is 3 years and $1.403 Million short of the desired result?…that there is one installment of real estate taxes due on the property and another one coming due in 10 days?…that while this action will most certainly free up the private partnership of the Kunkel Group and Bloomington developer Randall Lloyd to be able to move forward with converting the McCurdy into 90 or so apartments NO ONE SHOULD FORGET THAT THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE SQUANDERED $1.403 MILLION ON THIS PROJECT BY FAILING TO VET THE PROJECT AND ITS PRINCIPALS AND BY FAILING TO GRASP THE REALITY OF THE VALUE OF THE UNDERLYING ASSET UPON COMPLETION?…that every time that the Evansville Redevelopment Commission, the Evansville City Council, or any surrogate of either group runs off starry eyed with their mind oblivious to economic reality something like this happens?
IS IT TRUE that it will be interesting to see if yesterday’s announcement with regard to the former owner of the Riverhouse will make financing more difficult for the McCurdy?…that it was announced to the media yesterday that Todd Van Natta who had bought the Riverhouse for nearly $5 Million seems to have been under FBI investigation for a couple of years and that now Mr. Van Natta is under “probable cause†for bank fraud?…that reading the complaint specifically for the Riverhouse it is alleged by the bank that the loan terms were changed at the last minute and that they did not even have a loan officer present at closing?…that sure seems like a strange way for a bank to conduct business?…that what was allegedly changed was the definition of what the down payment was?…that the original deal called for a 20% down payment and an 80% loan?…that somehow that was changed to a situation where the down payment amount became a credit for future repairs which essentially made this deal slightly over a 100% loan?…that all being taken at face value and having been through several closing one must wonder just how that $8,000 check from the bank to Mr. Van Natta’s company found its way to the closing?…that another curiosity is just how did the Riverhouse appraise at nearly $5 Million to get the transaction to the point of closing in the first place?
IS IT TRUE that the saga of the Riverhouse and its next door neighbor the McCurdy have been real black marks on valuations in Downtown Evansville for the last 3 or 4 years?…that the Riverhouse eventually went to auction and only garnered a bid of slightly over $300,000?…that the for sale sign is getting dusty and faded and given the difficulties encountered the Riverhouse may be in for a long haul before a buyer comes along?…that when a 90 room hotel in need of repairs brings less at auction than the parking lot next door brought from the Evansville Redevelopment Commission that there is a terrible disconnect and misunderstanding with respect to values?…that the CCO hopes that the McCurdy project is able to move forward to completion and that someone will actually go in and close the windows on the upper floors that have been open all winter?…that there will most certainly be some damages from this typical neglect of what could be and should be a beautiful and functional building on Evansville’s riverfront?
IS IT TRUE that the key phrase in the long dissertation of the FBI agent who has deemed that the Riverhouse escapade is worthy of probably cause are the words “material misrepresentationâ€?…that this means that the FBI agent is alleging that Mr. Van Natta stated things on loan applications that were not accurate and that he knew it when he did it?…that we are quite interested in seeing the outcome of this unfortunate situation of alleged “material misrepresentation†play itself out?
The McCurdy Debacle: $1,403,000
The Executive Inn Dilemma: $1,000,000 and counting
Earthcare Energy Looming Disaster: $4,800,000
Loss of Public Trust: Priceless
Excellent! LOL
Don’t forget the LST (aka, the SS Riecken).
How is what Van Natta did any different than the Earthcare information that was not made known before the vote? These two deals have the same smell and it is not a good smell.
Could “Material Misrepresentation” being held from the public and our elected officials concerning Earthcare Energy deal information could prove to be similar to the Riverhouse deal?
When are our elected city officials going to make known to the pubic the extensive vetting research they did on their own behalf concerning Earthcare Energy management team?
Blogger
I hope real soon.
Hope their research shows how stupid it was for Debbie Dewey, The Mayor, Weaver, Mosby, Robinson, O’Daniel and Adams to support this $5 Million deal!
More importantly, I hope it will show the local public what a waste of taxpayer dollars being poured down the financial rat hole known as GAGE.
I expected much more from Mr. O’Daniel and Dr. Adams. This is exactly what I expected from Weaver, Mosby and Robinson.
Weaver, Mosby, and Robinson are self serving idiots and always have been. Adams for some reason was blinded to reality and O’Daniel got rolled out in the hallway.
Speaking of Beacon of Hope. They are City Council persons Riley, Friend, Lindsey and McGinn! Thanks for standing up for the taxpayers of Evansville by voting against the Earthcare Energy deal!
Yes, they represented us well. I just hope that Dr. Adams and Mr. O’Daniel reconsider their positions now the scam has been exposed for all to see. Weaver, Mosby and Robinson remain hopelessly clueless.
Weaver and Mosby are just dumb followers but Robinson seems to be in on the scam. Connie Van Natta had better make sure that she is not on the hook for the botched up information. That could be real trouble for her.
Hope Evansville City Council forces Ms. Dewey (President of GAGE) to make her salary with benifits public doing budget time. If Board member County Commissioner Steve Melcher can’t get this information from her, I bet the real finanical watchdogs of our tax dollars (Riley, McGinn, Friend and Lindsey)can get the information.
I bet when the real vetting facts not made public by GAGE concerning Earthcare Energy past business deals are made public, political heads will roll.
correction
Should had said—I bet when the facts are made public–etc—etc—etc.
The Democratic party has run this town with an iron fist for so long that the honesty of any Democrat is questionable. The voters ought to give the Republicans more serious consideration in the upcoming elections of his decade, or we will be doomed to the same Good Ol’ Boy corruption that has made us the laughing-stock of the Midwest.
If you think the local Republicans are any different from the Dems, you’re nuts.
They’ve been in on the scam for decades. The main role of the local GOP is to prevent any serious opposition to the establishment by controlling appointments and primaries. They are the major reason why there has never been a mainstream conservative in Evansville.
Do you mean “never been a mainstream conservative as mayor of Evansville,” or mainstream conservative on council, etc.?
Define “mainstream conservative” in terms relative to a local administrator like mayor, city council president, county commissioner, auditor, assessor, etc.
Disregarding party affiliation, how would you classify a mayor such as Frank McDonald II in terms of conservative, liberal, etc.? Same question with regard to Curt Wortman.
Sorry, I meant “mainstream conservative movement.” I left out the key word.
Both parties in Evansville are controlled by Big Labor and Big Business interests. The taxpayer gets screwed every single time because he really doesn’t have a seat at the table. That’s why our local politicos HATE ballot initiatives like the one on school funding some years ago; ballot initiatives are the only chance the everyday taxpayer has in a corrupt little hellhole like Evansville.
Mainstream conservatives, since at least the time of Reagan, have been about protecting the middle-class taxpayer. Can you name a single Evansville politician in the last 30 years who has placed the taxpayer’s interests above those of Labor or Business? I can’t think of one.
I could name you several local politicians who served honorably over the past 30 years or so, and who put middle class values and the taxpayer first, and really could care less about Big Labor or Big Business.
I’m not going to name them here, because I don’t want to subject their good names to hateful commentary, lies, and slurs aimed at their families.
Let me explain a little more what I mean by taxpayer advocacy vs. cronyism for Big Labor and Big Business.
The downtown stadium is a perfect example. Very few actual tazpayers wanted it. It was very much an “optional” project that a fiscally responsible city wouldn’t have undertaken at that point in time.
HOWEVER…two major interest groups wanted it: Big Labor and Big Business. Labor wanted the trade union and construction contracts. Business wanted the contracts and the ego gratification of having a “real” entertainment venue so that they could brag to their friends about attending a Rascal Flatts concert in a skybox.
So it was a foregone conclusion that the stadium was going to be built. A few renegade Republicans fought it without party support, but the power players in both parties were working for the same objective. Typical Evansville.
If the local GOP had any conservative principles at all, they would have fought it tooth and nail. And they probably could have stopped it. Unfortunatley, the local GOP takes its orders directly from a few powerful business leaders who were determined to see the stadium built.
Appropriation politics is all about wealth transfers. Wealth is always flowing, from the rich to the poor, from the poor to the rich, etc. In the US, the vast majority of the wealth is in our middle class, so they tend to be the ones who get screwed in all of the class warfare nonsense.
In Evansville, there sad thing is that the middle class has practically vanished. They’ve all moved to the county, to Newburgh, or simply left the region altogether.
So what you have is the same band of crooks and morons sucking the last drops of blood out of the corpse of Evansville’s middle class. Soon, there will be no wealth left to transfer. And that’s when things will get REALLY interesting in River City.
Even the damn Chamber of Commerce was in on shoving the arena through. Why? Because their funds come from unions and big business too. They are useless for small businesses in Evansville.
Re; Chamber of Commerce
Yep. It was their “major priority.” Could someone please release some pigeons once we confirm the first business that relocates to Evansville due to the Ford Center?
Until Evansville voters come to understand the following equation, nothing will ever improve. If they fail to understand it, then they deserve their fate:
Dems=Reps=Weinzapfel=Winnecke=Labor=Business=The Courier=News25=WFIE=Vectren=Old National=Fifth Third=the Chamber
They are all on the same team. The other team is “Joe Taxpayer” all by himself. He doesn’t stand a chance.
You say, “wealth is always flowing, from the rich to the poor, from the poor to the rich, etc. In the US, the vast majority of the wealth is in our middle class, so they tend to be the ones who get screwed in all of the class warfare nonsense.”
I agree, wealth flows simply because money circulates. That’s a given.
You say wealth always flows from the rich to the poor, or from the poor to the rich. Let me ask you, does it directly back and forth, hopping completely over the middle class? If so, how come you can say, “the vast majority of the wealth is in our middle class?” Are we in the middle class generating wealth out of thin air, or does wealth flow thru us on its way back and forth to the rich and the poor, as you see it?
You say, “it was a foregone conclusion that the stadium was going to be built. A few renegade Republicans fought it without party support, but the power players in both parties were working for the same objective.” And I agree. It was a foregone conclusion that the arena would be built, and built downtown. I disagree that business leaders wanted the arena for “the ego gratification of … (bragging) to their friends about attending a Rascal Flatts concert in a skybox,” although that’s a pretty damned funny way to put it.
I agree that Labor wanted the work, and Business wanted the contracts, all of which is understandable considering the state of the economy in 2009.
You seem particularly bitter that “a few renegade Republicans fought it without party support.” Yet if I remember correctly, Party Chairman Nick Hermann accompanied Andrew Smith, the Sewers Before Stadium candidate for City Council, nearly everywhere he went.
Was Nick helping Smith, or just keeping him on a short leash?
As I see it, the middle class creates wealth, and funds the vast majority of our spending programs.
The uber-rich have no income, take very little capital gains, and are able to offset gains with losses to keep their real tax rates down. The dirty little secret is that most uber-wealthy people are liberals. Why? I’m sure guilt plays a role, but simple self-interest plays a bigger one. You won’t find many billionaires in favor of a flat tax or an increase on capital gains or estate taxes…but you’ll find plenty who wouldn’t mind seeing income taxes go up. Think Warren Buffett–the ultimate phony man-of-the-people hypocrite.
The poor have no income to begin with, and pay literally or practcally nothing in taxes. They don’t vote, either, so they don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.
The middle class gets screwed because it is dependent on earned income. The more earned income you bring in, the higher your tax rate, and there is really no good way to offset that.
People think that making $200K in this country makes you “rich.” Nonsense. You CANNOT salary yourself to true wealth (unless you’re a pro athlete or an entertainer making literally $10’s of millions per year). The tax system makes sure of that.
The path to true wealth is entrepreneurship or ownership, and very few people are mentally or financially equipped for that.
But this country has been very successful in creating a robust middle class. The vast majority of Americans fall into this category. They will never be free of financial worry, and the political parties do a nice job of distracting them with meaningless issues like gay marriage, “global warming,” and dumbass wars.
If they ever wised up–and they won’t–they’d realize just how much the system is set up structurally to screw them. Inflation eats away at their bottom line while taxation clips their top line.
And some of them think that “Democrats” will save the day because they “care” about things like healthcare, the environment, and education. Others think that “Republicans” will save them because they “care” about things like controlling spending, protecting our national security, and defending traditional morality.
Meanwhile, the ones actually running the show own both parties lock, stock, and barrel. It’s all theater, and we gobble it up like a meth lollipop.
It would be funny if it were satire…
DONT FORGET TO ADD DEBBIE DEWEY AND GAGE (TAXPAYERS MONEY PIT) TOO LIST!
“Indiana was ranked as the best place to do business in the Midwest and the fifth best nationwide in a survey of more than 500 chief executives by Chief Executive magazine. This is the third ranking in less than eight months in which the Hoosier State’s business climate has scored a top ten finish nationally.”
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=53491
Imagine how good it would be if they didn’t have Evansville tied to their ankles!
lol
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