IS IT TRUE April 23, 2013
IS IT TRUE the General Electric Corporation has added another 200 workers in Louisville’s Appliance Park Complex?…this raises the total number of jobs created by GE in Louisville to over 3,000 since the announcement that Whirlpool was shutting down manufacturing in Evansville?…an in depth analysis of why the “Tale of Two Cities†named Evansville and Louisville has been so divergent during the last 10 or 15 years?…when we were all kids there was not a tremendous difference in Evansville and Louisville?
IS IT TRUE that the dealers of Casino Aztar have voted to honor the contract they have with the United Auto Workers that runs through January 2015?…the vote was close with roughly 40% of those who cast a vote preferring to accelerate the provision in the Right to Work law that would allow them to opt out of paying dues to the UAW to keep their jobs?…in spite of state law it seems as though a contract is a contract and we have no problem with private businesses conducting their business as they choose?…this also will give the UAW a couple of years to prepare for the loss of 40% of the dues they have been collecting from Aztar dealers or to take some actions to convince them that the services provided are worth the dues they now have to pay?
IS IT TRUE that next week’s special meeting of the Evansville City Council will be for the purpose of informing the membership about the status, needs, and plans for the downtown convention hotel?…the usual support groups including local trade unions, the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and other ardent supporters of contributing taxpayer dollars to private business are lining up to pack the room with vocal support?…this is reminiscent of the road show designed by Mayor Weinzapfel when he was putting on a show of public support for the new arena?…if there is one thing you can count on it will be that the supporters of dropping nearly $50 Million on a hotel, some retail, and a restaurant will be on hand with well prepared statements to fill the air with the sounds of support?
IS IT TRUE that this is also a public opportunity for people of Evansville who do not support our City Council greasing the skids of an out of town developer to build the hotel complex with nearly $50 Million taxpayer dollars?…the supporters should look familiar as this is pretty close to the same groups that vocally supported the consolidation of Evansville and Vanderburgh County governments?…were it not for a very well organized effort by the group known as CORE that actively opposed consolidation that it may well have passed?…if no organized opposition to spending taxpayer dollars on a hotel and other private matters comes forward with a strong and repeated message of opposition this will in all likelihood be passed?…the real question when it comes to this spending initiative is whether or not the loyal opposition will show up to counter the supporters?…we predict that whichever side of this issue commands the most public attention will prevail?…if the readers and other citizens who oppose this so called investment sit silent they will be paying for it too?…neither side should give up without having their say?…the supporters are already mobilized for a number of stated reasons?
IS IT TRUE we hope that Mayor Winnecke, his first lady Carol McClintock, and their contingency are enjoying themselves in Amsterdam as they will return soon to what may be an old fashioned knock down drag it out debate on the merits of spending public dollars on private enterprise?…we wonder why the hotel and the IU Medical school are being bundled into the same informational meeting?…these two things do not have much in common?…it seems as though some confusion is being orchestrated by pork barrel style bundling of these two projects that are slated for downtown Evansville?
IS IT TRUE that of the projects that have been on paper for downtown Evansville for many years now only one seems to be a beehive of activity?…with the hotel and the McCurdy projects grabbing all of the headlines but swinging no hammers only the privately funded renovation of the Riverhouse is hiring workers to do some building?…this is a good example of the difference in private funding and publicly supported projects?…we bet the cost per square foot of the Comfort Inn will be substantially lower than the projects supported with public money as well?
“…we bet the cost per square foot of the Comfort Inn will be substantially lower than the projects supported with public money as well…”
False indicator of ‘efficiency’ in many cases. A mud hut costs far less per square foot than a 3-bedroom house, as does a building slapped together by barely skilled workers or a building which doesn’t meet code.
Well you do have a point but in the case we were referring to all of the projects are subject to the same building codes and have the opportunity to hire from the same workforce. It is speed that reduces costs. If I-69 would have been built when it was planned as opposed to 50 years later the cost would have been much lower. The same applys to the sewers of Evansville. The longer you wait and the longer you take the more you will pay.
Certainly can’t argue with your thoughts, but also consider that inflation probably means that even though it might have cost ‘only’ $50 million to fix or build something 30 years ago and costs $150 million today, the cost as a percentage of a communities resources may have remained rather constant. As a percent of my income, I suspect a loaf of bread costs about the same for me as it did my grandparents even though I pay $2 and they paid 5 cents.
I generally think cost overruns with government projects is more a function of the outright graft, bribery, and general corruption associated with those projects, but that might just be my cynical side talking…
Your cynical side speaks the truth. If you want proof compare the registry of contractors for any public works project with the donor list to politicians who were in power at the time. Every dime funneled from the public coffers into a construction company that comes back as a political contribution is a dime stolen legally from the people of that town. There are less opportunities for SNEGAL to fill his pockets in the competitive world of private enterprise.
“IS IT TRUE that next week’s special meeting of the Evansville City Council will be for the purpose of informing the membership about the status, needs, and plans for the downtown convention hotel?…the usual support groups including local trade unions, the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and other ardent supporters of contributing taxpayer dollars to private business are lining up to pack the room with vocal support?…this is reminiscent of the road show designed by Mayor Weinzapfel when he was putting on a show of public support for the new arena?…if there is one thing you can count on it will be that the supporters of dropping nearly $50 Million on a hotel, some retail, and a restaurant will be on hand with well prepared statements to fill the air with the sounds of support?” (CCO)
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It is time to ask the “usual support groups” to put their money where their mouths are and for them, either individually or collectively, to come up with the 50%, or roughly $35.million needed to cover the proposed publicly funded portion of the project. After all, these are the groups that will greatly benefit from the project, while the of taxpayers will only reap higher tax bills for the next 20 to 30 years.
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Make that: “MAJORITY of the taxpayers will only reap higher tax bills for the next 20 to 30 years.”
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It appears that the stadium audit results are finally in and they did not meet John Friend’s satisfaction even though it took six months. Why hasn’t Jenny Collins and Weinzapfel been arrested yet? Instead one of them has a comfy newly created position for her that is way over her head and the other is practicing law in Indianapolis.
Has anyone heard the rumor that the Fiscal Officer of the City of Evansville Water and Sewer Department just received another raise? If this rumor is true, she is making over well over $100,000 a year.
Probably to help pay for her legal defense which is coming soon. It’s shameful. The Utilities functioned well without a CFO position for years and at this pay they should be able to find a CPA to fill it!
Let’s hope that our ex-mayor lives out the rest of his life in our state’s capitol city. Indy deserves him and we deserve to be rid of him for the remainder of his miserable existence.
Over the past 35 years, I’ve seen high paying employers leave Evansville one after another. Replacing these employers have been retail, restaurants, and mom & pop manufacturing shops. Unless our elected leaders put forth the same effort to bring back high paying manufacturing jobs here ( like in Louisville), as they have been with their current projects that don’t benefit the majority of the tax paying citizens, Evansville will be dead like many of the gold rush boom towns of the past. We are half way down that slippery slope.
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