IS IT TRUE March 11, 2013
IS IT TRUE it has been pointed out to the City County Observer that the Courier Press recently reported on the Bond rating of the City of Evansville relative to the Ford Center?…this person just wanted to keep the people of Evansville informed that the Courier was comparing apple to oranges?… the Evansville Redevelopment Authority (ERA), which is totally separate from the City of Evansville, owns the Ford Center and issued the bonds that paid for the Ford Center?…the ERA then leases the Ford Center to the City?…during the audit process, the SBOA (State Board of Accountancy), will NOT be performing audit procedures concerning the ERA?… as such, should the City of Evansville encounter an adverse opinion due to the condition of the City’s records, the bond rating of the Arena will NOT be effected at all?… it was misleading to report, or insinuate that the Citizens of City have nothing to be concerned about regarding their bond ratings should we unfortunately receive less than a favorable audit opinion?
IS IT TRUE the Blue Angels that have been scheduled to perform at the Evansville Shriner’s Fest this summer have been cancelling shows across the country due to the budget cuts known as SEQUESTER?…we should know in a very short time if the Blue Angels will be coming to Evansville or not?…military shows like the Blue Angels always add to the crowd size in towns across the country and are seen as a welcome shot in the arm bringing tourist dollars to the towns they choose to perform in?…if these cities and towns had to foot the full cost to the American taxpayers for the performance they may be singing a different song?…it was reported yesterday that one Blue Angels performance uses about $100,000 just in jet fuel?…there are other costs associated with performing military planes too?…in terms of government spending that $100,000 is really the equivalent of 143 hammers that could be purchased at any hardware store for $3,500?…if SEQESTER starts our government on the path of sane spending it is worth it to miss things like the Blue Angels which while enjoyable are definitely not necessary to run the country and may well have been a wasteful indulgence for many years now?
IS IT TRUE speaking of the SEQUESTER the claims of jobs being lost because of reductions in planned spending are all over the map and in some cases designed to frighten the American people?…in truth there are some jobs supported entirely by government largesse that probably need to be eliminated?…let’s use the example of whomever is employed to make those $700 hammers and $500 toilet seats?…these jobs need to go away and the people doing these jobs need to be reassigned to something that serves the private sector or the government sector where pricing is not utterly insane?…it was President Obama’s right hand man Rahm Emmanuel who once said “never let a crisis go to wasteâ€?…the SEQUESTER crisis if it really is one should be used to hit the reset button on government pricing?…it would serve our medical system that routinely has the nerve to bill patients and insurance companies up to $3 for a cotton ball to examine their pricing schemes as well?…if Obamacare is to work it will be fully dependent on sane pricing?…that government and medical services are the two most guilty industries in the United States when it comes to insanity of pricing?…the REAL WORLD of competitive enterprise would never ever tolerate such pricing?…that whatever the government does or regulates seldom works out well in the long run?
IS IT TRUE the CCO wishes to congratulate and celebrate the Indiana Hoosiers first outright Big Ten basketball championship in 20 years?…as this week’s conference tournaments play out Indiana is in a good spot to get a number one seed in March Madness along with Duke, Louisville, and #1 ranked Gonzaga?
Do you guys want to cut spending or not? Sometimes you’re pretty vague about it. Screaming like a little child to cut spending but then complaining about the effects.
We support a government that lives within its means which in today’s world means cutting spending. We point out the excessive spending of government for everyday items to emphasize that cutting spending may not have to translate into cutting any services or materials at all.
“…that government and medical services are the two most guilty industries in the United States when it comes to insanity of pricing?…the REAL WORLD of competitive enterprise would never ever tolerate such pricing?”
Certainly there is a lot of waste in government spending. But we DO have competition in health care (for now), and if you don’t like the price or service at one doctor or hospital, there are others from which to choose. Or some enterprising soul can open his or her own hospital, right?
One problem a hospital has is playing by all the government rules, which in theory are designed to improve performance and outcomes but can also add tremendously to the cost of health care. That $3 cotton ball is priced to absorb other costs of documenting EVERYTHING that goes on in the hospital to soothe the minds of the 99.9% of patients who have no negative experience. It’s overkill, and we all pay for the 0.1% complainers.
[Why did Gov. Jerry Brown push to end redevelopment agencies?
Brown argued that the state could no longer afford redevelopment in a budget crisis. Redevelopment is contentious because of the financial advantage it provides redevelopment agencies and their community sponsors, primarily cities, over school districts, counties and other property tax recipients. He argued that the money would be better spent directly on schools and core city and county services, such as police and fire protection.]
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In my opinion Governor Brown had no alternative but to break the hold that local chamber of commerce types have on city governments through their influence over politicians and the redevelopment commissions.
Had these redevelopment commissions been used for their original intent of finding ways to improve the more blighted areas of a city, all of these cities would be much better off today. Instead, the chamber used its considerable influence to back projects of questionable merit. Projects that, just as Governor Brown states, took revenue away from schools and infrastructure.
The same thing has happened in Evansville, which currently has $400.million in bonded debt and is looking to add even more to that with a downtown hotel project. Apparently no private developer will build a convention hotel in downtown Evansville, so the city will again use public tax dollars to sweeten the pot enough to make the project palatable to a contractor of its choosing. Another case of government picking the winners and losers in business.
One has to ask if public expenditure is productive. According to many studies related in Cato Journal (Volume33 Number 1, Winter 2013) the answer is no. “Recent study results are similar to the findings of Glaeser et al (1995). The results indicate that with the exception of sanitation spending, public expenditures had no relationship with the income and population growth rates of cities in the period between1960 and 1990. More recently, using a similar approach but examining metro areas instead of cities, Stansel (2009) also found no significant relationship between local government spending and economic growth over 1960-90.”
“One possible explanation for the consistent finding of an insignificant relationship is that the potential benefit of local government spending may be outweighed by the cost of the taxes necessary to finance that spending. Taxes remove money from the private sector, in which the profit motive tends to insure its efficient usage, and transfer it to the political sector, in which electoral motives play a strong role. As a result, when local government spending and taxes rise, there is a reduction in the efficiency of the usage of resources.”
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Anybody know the average attendance per game at the GLVC tournament last week?
Anybody?
I’m going to guess the “average” crowd per game was 600. I’m going to guess the lowest amount of fans for a game was 100 and the most was 2,500 (when USI was playing).
Would a reporter from the CCO please get attendance figures – PER GAME – of the tournament and let us know the results?
I’m working on obtaining those figures myself.
You can already obtain the figures for the individual games by clicking on the box scores for each game…
http://www.glvcsports.com/sports/2013/1/25/MBBALL_0125132219.aspx?id=6044&
AFAIK, total attendance has not been announced yet.
(p.s. No matter the attendance figure, how much do you want to bet that the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors and Convention Bureau liars will say the tournament “brought in a million dollars” … It’s the figure they use for everything…)
You are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT correct on this. They will try and argue anything they can to justify this tournament being placed in a brand new $125 mil arena. There is none. This is yet another example, among many others that have ALREADY occurred, that are rock solid evidence against the theories Winnecke put forward against Roberts.
While I agree with your opinion about Robert’s Stadium, I felt your comments in the C&P about the GLVC Tournament and events surrounding it made you seem like nothing but an angry crackpot. You didn’t get your point across very well at all that the city could’ve benefited by having complementary, not competing facilities.
I’d really like to hear your logic behind this. Let me be very clear- Sticking a tournament that draws cricket noise and has already left town because of attendance and financial costs in a 9,400 seat multi-million dollar arena is easily one of the dumbest ideas yet to come from this whole project outside of the UE fiasco.
You can make up whatever you wsnt about how great of a time it was, how great of memories your kids will have, yada, yada, yada. But at the end of the day, the numbers don’t lie.
Is that you again Brent? This post is nearly identical in structure to the one you posted as Friends Friend last week. If you’re going to try and fool us Brent, at least change your style.
Huh? My name is not Brent at all. I was pretty sure everyone knew this. If not, click on my screen name above.
I’m sorry Rails. My post was aimed for the one above yours.
Rails: I’m not disagreeing with you. What I said was you didn’t get your point across very well in your comments in the C&P.
For example: “This event has been a complete failure of epic proportions. May this weekend stand as the prime example of what happens when mismanagement meets city government pride.”
The only thing that came across was negativity. Someone who didn’t already understand your POV wouldn’t understand what you meant by this. What made this event a failure was it was under-attended. Could low attendance have been predicted? YES. Was the Ford Center overkill for the event? YES. Would a lower cost and smaller venue been better suited? YES. Did Weinzapfel and Winnecke screw us? HELL YES! What you said was not wrong, I just think you did an injustice to your cause by not saying it better/clearer.
JamesT. If you were addressing your comment at me, my name is not Brent either.
IS IT TRUE that the CCO “editors” have yet to comment on their “chosen one” stepping down in the run for Sheriff? IS IT TRUE that the only response has been a half-witted snipe in the comment section of an IS IT TRUE post?
IS IT TRUE that the CCO apparently does not have the guts to post an article about their “chosen” candidate dropping out in such a fiery splashdown (crash and burn)?
As much as I agree with their opposition to the machine’s candidate, I have to agree with you. You’d think that would be considered newsworthy.
Sort of old news now isnt it?
Any clues as to why the CCO’s hero, David Garrett, was a no-show at tonight’s meeting?
From what I’ve seen, he was an amateur hired to do a professional’s job.
I heard Garrett wasn’t at the meeting because he was busy preparing reservations for key members of the Weinzapfel administration … at the jail.
Book ’em, Garrett!
Why should Garrett prepare reservations at the JAIL. OFF WITH HER HEAD!!! BURN HER AT THE STAKE!!! If they get rid of her, then John Friend could convince Connie Robinson and Dr. Adams to back Garrett for the CFO job at the City Water and Sewage department. WHY IT WOULD BRING ALOT OF REVENUE FOR THE CITY IF WE HAD A GOOD OLD FASHION “WITCH BURNING” CHARGE ADMISSION! The “THRUTHSQUAD” should appreciate, they would NEVER start RUMORS!!!
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