IS IT TRUE September 11, 2013
IS IT TRUE we asked Evansville City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. how the bond payment for the Ford Center would be paid in the event the downtown TIF was not capable of making the payment and have received an answer?…we appreciate Russ’s willingness to answer this question very much and present it to our readers the way he answered it?… the 2014 Budget for Arena bond payments is approximately $8.1 million?…payment sources per bond documents are the City of Evansville’s share of the Food & Beverage tax supplemented by1/2 TIF funds and 1/2 Riverboat Funds with County Option Income Tax (COIT-LIT) as a backup in the event that those three sources have insufficient funds to make any of the payments?…the 2014 City of Evansville collections of the Food and Beverage Tax is estimated to be $750,000, leaving the downtown TIF to pay $3,675,000 and Riverboat Funds to pay $3,675,000?…that Controller Lloyd assured us that both funds have sufficient money to make this payment?…he further let us know that typically even TIF supported bonds have backup payment sources to avoid default?…in the case of Ford Center the COIT was added as a funding source to make the bonds more saleable?
IS IT TRUE we have previously established via the 2012 annual report for the downtown TIF that 2012 was a year that the TIF spent $1.5 Million more than it took in?…there is a sufficient accumulated balance in that TIF to make the kind of payments that Controller Lloyd estimated for a few more years so all should be well with the Ford Center note through 2015 or so?…the real wild card looming is the continued reliance of Riverboat Taxes to fund long term bonds when the revenues of the Indiana Riverboats has been in a slow decline?…it was recently reported that Indiana casinos as a whole have seen a 12% decline in revenues over the last year?…Evansville’s Tropicana was somewhat less affected only seeing a 2.4% decrease in revenue?…this will translate directly into a lower payment to the City of Evansville at a time that the City seems to be on a spending spree with the Riverboat Money pushing fixed expenses closer and closer to the anticipated revenue?…this financial decision is very much like a family where the breadwinners are getting pay cuts and or their hours cut back going forward with building a swimming pool or putting in a room addition on credit?…counting on the downtown TIF and the Riverboat funds to cover everything is a risky and unwise financial plan and anyone that can add who has the discipline to do a 25 year spreadsheet will learn that very quickly?
IS IT TRUE it was reported yesterday that “the deliberations of the City Council with respect to funding the downtown hotel are just about endedâ€?…in that very same article is was reported that the VETTING was not even started yet?…while we do not doubt the accuracy of either of these statements we find them to be rather conflicted?…it is entirely expected based on Google searches that the principles of HCW will pass background checks and credit checks with flying colors?…the VETTING of the results of other projects they have done like Branson Landing are not so assured of being in the bag as winners?…there are plenty of things out there that have been published about that and other projects that look very much like the Ford Center in underperforming financially relative to the financial projections used to entice the powers that be to move forward with the project?…that will raise the question of is this proposed hotel, retail, restaurant, and apartments project really the best use of $37.5 Million borrowed dollars assuming it is wise to borrow that much money in the first place?
IS IT TRUE then candidate Winnecke made some big statements regarding the establishment of angel networks and venture capital to invest in start-up technology based companies that would in turn create jobs and wealth in Evansville?…then candidate Winnecke spoke glowingly of the contract signed in 2008 between GAGE and NAVSEA to enable the entire federal portfolio of patents available to companies in a 26 county region centered in the City of Evansville?…after 20 months in office nothing but a bus trip to Crane, IN for politicians and academics seems to have happened?…Evansville remains the only city in America with a population over 100,000 that does not have so much as a branch office of a venture capital firm?…in the meantime out in Palm Springs, CA the Coachella Valley Innovation Hub has just seen one of its companies go from a one man operation to become a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of $18.4 Million in that same time period with 18 more such companies in the pipeline for similar liquidity events?…the public investment in that company was exactly ZERO but the support structure in place for such companies is now regarded as the best in California and has an acceptance rate for company applications for membership of less than 20%?
IS IT TRUE if Evansville can ever get over the misguided vision that fun and games is the only thing worthy of public investment and the only ticket to economic prosperity such things could happen in Evansville?…the fields of clean coal technology, fracking, and plastics should be areas where technical innovation and commercialization are vibrant and prosperous and Evansville is a well positioned as any place or even better to pursue such activities?…talent is the necessary ingredient to do this things and talent follows investment dollars?…the real problem is that those investment dollars do not exist in Evansville?…this is not a problem that a hotel, dog parks, or any assortment of fun and games temples will ever fix?
