IS IT TRUE June 20, 2012

IS IT TRUE Councilman Friend tells the City County Observer that he has received a reply from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) responding to his request concerning the question, “Is interest during construction considered part of the total cost of governmental projects”?… that the hard cost of the Johnson Control contract is approximately $52 Million, but, the cost of interest during construction and cost of bond issuance, etc. is over $4 Million, driving the total project cost to approximately $57 million?… the total financing is based on $57 million dollars and this is the information that was presented to the AICPA?…that Councilman Friend was informed that according to GASB 62,( Governmental Accounting Standards Board) Interest During Construction (IDC) is REQUIRED to be capitalized into the total cost of the project?…if the IDC is in the total financing package, how, then, could it be considered as SAVINGS?…based on Umbaugh’s logic, the Ford Center should have cost only $95 million, not, as reported $127.5 million?.. If the cost is $127.5 Million, then the capitalized interest must be a savings?…this must be the era of new math in Evansville when it comes to capital expenditures by the City of Evansville?

IS IT TRUE the Welborn Health Plans which have been a mainstay for health insurance purchasers in SW Indiana and Kentucky have decided to get out of the business?…come December 30th of this year that this opportunity to purchase health insurance will cease to exist?…the CEO of the Welborn Health Plans has attributed the decision to get out of the business to ObamaCare and “what is going on in Washington”?…that this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to small insurers getting out of the business because of the way this plan makes competing in these markets for the “little guys” distasteful and nearly impossible to do so in a way that is prosperous?

IS IT TRUE that it has now been a full 4 years (1,460 days) since then Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel stood smiling for the cameras to announce that a 4 Star hotel would be built in downtown Evansville IF and only IF the City of Evansville built a new arena?…that after 3 different deals have fallen apart and an arena is nearing its first year of operation that the new Evansville Redevelopment Commission is once again going to the well to solicit bids to construct a new downtown Convention Hotel?…this would be funny if it were not true but here we go again?…that if all goes to perfection and a developer that meets the ERC criteria of actually having done this before is found that sometime in 2015 downtown Evansville may have a new 2 or 3 star hotel that is heavily subsidized by public money?…that this is all being put forward at a time when any fool can go onto Loopnet and find 200 – 300 room hotels in better locations for less than $40,000 per room?…that the difference in the estimated cost to build of $125,000 per room and the market value of $40,000 per room will have to be borne by the people of Evansville for a deal to be struck with an intelligent developer?…that to make this happen we had all better get ready for an incentive package of between $20 Million and $24 Million just like Fort Wayne had to put out to get White Lodging to the table?

IS IT TRUE that there is a perfectly good alternative to this 5 blocks west at the McCurdy Hotel?…that a completely refurbished McCurdy would be unique, a tourist draw, and would take less incentives to be realized than a new hotel at the Rock Pile would?…that this idea has been floated to Mayor Winnecke by a business that can make it happen and this person did not even get the courtesy of a returned phone call?…the restoration of the McCurdy is a sane endeavor that may just result in profits and private investment and that the downtown Convention Hotel that the RFP will be soliciting is simply another Weinzapfel era boondoggle designed to give Evansville taxpayer money to outside interests destined to become campaign donors in the future?