This is GREAT – and exactly why Government, especially local Government, shouldn’t believe that simply because of their shining ability to get at least one more vote than the other guy that they are now economic geniuses. They’re not and I now hope that all their constituent taxpayers pull their electoral plugs before Mayor Engler and the rest of the Hope N’Renovate City Council decided to flush even MORE tax monies down the drain. Exactly what I predicted has happened (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Colonial project takes big hit
A funding problem on Thursday threw into serious doubt long-delayed plans to restore the 105-year-old Colonial Theatre, a project intended to catalyze downtown revitalization. A total of $4.8 million in federal New Market Tax Credits needed to complete the complicated financing package fell through. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday it awarded $3.5 billion of the tax credits to 73 community development entities to spur investment and economic growth in low-income communities nationwide.
And what I had predicted, happened:
Mascoma Bank, the community development agency involved with the $15 million Colonial project, was not on the list.
Good going guys! Hope, hope, more hope and “happy words” wasn’t a strategy when I started to follow this mashup of politicians doing the “I want one, too, boondoggle boogie” and now I get to say that big ole “I told you so”. This from Engler is rich, so very rich (yes, I’m taking advantage of the situation in that they aren’t rich enough unless it was via other peoples’ money):
Mayor Ed Engler, a foremost proponent of refurbishing the theater, was out of town, but in a brief email, called the funding issue “very disappointing news. “No way to sugar coat it, but the oversight committee will get to work exploring alternative courses of action.” Dick Jennings, managing director of Mascoma Community Development, said much of New England was shut out from the allocation. “It’s a devastating thing for the projects that we work with,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking to the entire staff.”
Yeah, but you weren’t personally or financially invested, Jennings. Engler, on the other hand, had better be prepping at least one “alternative course of action” to say “we have more basic things we need to spend our tax monies on than an old stage theater that the private sector knew was a loser decades ago”.
Yeah, and the possibility of that happening is almost nil until his nose is bent by all of the slamming doors (with his ears ringing with laughter from the other side of said door). And why was there only ONE Councilor with any kind of fiscal sanity in that gaggle?
It will likely not be easy, said City Councilor Bruce Cheney. He asked at a City Council meeting on Jan. 14 what would happen if the full financing package did not come together. “I mean, what do we do with this sudden albatross that’s sitting there if we don’t come up with $15 million bucks?” he asked. On Thursday, he reiterated his concerns. “That was my question — ‘What was Plan B?’” Cheney said. “I was assured there was no Plan B, it had to be Mascoma.”
Such a deal – a one and only “I HOPE it happens, I HOPE it happens!”. Too bad, only Dorothy gets to click the heels three times to get her wish. But Engler hasn’t learned his lesson yet:
“Everything has to come together at one point. The more we delay, the less likely that this thing will ever come together.”
ONE new thing I did learn was similar to another Government entity. Remember this:
Earlier this week, it was reported that the Claremont school district failed to file paperwork to get federal reimbursement for a school lunch program. What’s worse is that this is the second year in a row that this has happened. Total cost to Claremont taxpayers: $360,000.
I urge you to go read the rest of that article to see how Claremont has gone on a spending spree with other peoples’ money but is suing the rest of us for even more?
Yeah, so this clunker of a theater deal Did. Exactly. The. Same. Thing:
In 2017, the project missed a deadline for New Market Tax Credits, so Mascoma Bank awarded the credits elsewhere.
If you can’t be trusted to keep a known deadline, dealing with millions of dollars, WHY should ANY taxpayer go “Sure, up my taxes so people can tapdance across a stage”? All they have to do is go to the next City Council meeting and watch their elected leaders tapdance around this fiasco.
But you know, Hope is eternal – and so are the wallets of taxpayers. Doubt me? Just ask the elected leadership of Laconia.
(H/T: Laconia Daily Sun)
