Balsams Sits Idle While Otten Fishes for More Investors - Granite Grok

Balsams Sits Idle While Otten Fishes for More Investors

Balsams 1
SB 30 Balsams Bailout Taxpayer Funded Fixer Upper

Remember the fight to block taxpayer-backed loans for Les Otten’s Balsams Boondoggle? The legislature and then Democrat Governor Maggie Hassan gave it their thumbs-up*. Well, it’s still sitting idle while Les hunts for more private investors.

That’s not a good sign. But this is.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation is putting the brakes on a $2.3 million road repair project tied to the redevelopment of the Balsams resort in Dixville.

As for my asterisk, the $28 Million is in the hands of the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA).

The BFA has all the paperwork it needs to make a call and the Union Leader article linked above suggests that their go-ahead could get things moving, but if that’s true why is Otten still fishing for more money? He could be asking for $12 million from the Department of Agriculture, which our readers may recall fund performing arts centers. And he is clearly looking for more private money.

Investors, and by that I mean New Hampshire taxpayers, should be concerned that 1) Otten keeps turning his entrepreneurial gaze toward even more public handouts because 2) he can’t find private money for this sure-fire long-term boon to the North Country Economy.

While I’m beating an old drum, this is not unlike the scenario that played out in Newport, Vermont.

I scratched the surface here back in April, but VT Digger has gone all in to explain and expose the events and the players. Big promises for North Country (Vermont) job creation. Federal programs tweaked. Taxpayer money funneled for infrastructure. Local politicians lined up. Investors corraled and most-likely bilked. Taxpayers put on the hook for fraud investigations and investor refunds.

I don’t think the feds are investigating Otten, and I can’t say if he’d even consider bilking the EB5 visa program for cash (or anything like it), but local groups are already asking questions about the Balsams getting millions from Northern Pass (Log-in or Subscription Required).

The Balsams is back in the hot seat as the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests want to know its full relationship with Northern Pass to determine if it’s in the public interest and if any future money awards for the resort are conditioned upon its support for the transmission line.

Northern Pass has offered Otten $5 million so far, and that sum could go higher if it proves useful, but that’s not an investment in the project. It is leverage to use that project’s weight to get Nothern Pass approved. The point being that this isn’t a demonstration of economic support for Otten’s baby. If Northern Pass gets built, they could care less if Otten goes under or not. He’s just a useful idiot to them.

Idiots not unlike the New Hampshire Taxpayer if the BFA lets the loan out the door before more serious private investment shows its face and checkbook at Otten’s door. Any investment that isn’t relying on taxpayers to take the hit if things go sideways.

Yes, it’s nice to dream about a new economic hot spot for jobs and commerce (and tax revenue) up north. But twenty-eight million buys nothing if it ends up down a hole next to a project that never got off the ground because no one else had the same ‘vision’ as Les Otten.

Let’s applaud the NH DOT for having some common sense and hope that spreads to the BFA and anyone else sitting on contracts tied to the Balsams until after Otten brings home enough private investment bacon so that taxpayers won’t get fried.

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