When Nashua residents look around town, one thing should come to mind – fraud – an act of deceiving or misrepresenting. I say this because the Nashua residents have been boldly deceived by Mayor Donchess on the Performing Arts Center.
Nashua residents should not worry about the Performing Arts Center failing because the Nashua taxpayers will be paying rent in order to cover the costs that the Performing Arts Center has incurred on all their loans. This place will be well funded for 25 years with plenty of tax dollars.
I can say this because of the following:
- Taxpayers took out $21,000,000 in bonds for the construction of the Performing Arts Center.
- The City of Nashua gave the Performing Arts Center a loan of $7,108,850.
- Performing Art Center took a NMTC loan of $9,555,000 with a guarantee from the City of Nashua.
- Nashua Arts Community gave the Performing Arts Center $1,500,000 donation
The total price tag for the Performing Arts Center is $39,163,800, of which the City of Nashua taxpayers have guaranteed $37,663,850
But taxpayers must remember we were told that the total construction cost would only be $15.5 maximum; however, as of December 31, 2022, the construction costs have reached $30,276,669.32, and that is not including any so-called “fees.”
Residents should remember that the “project” could not start until the city raised $4 million dollars in private donations. The problem here is that the city could not raise the money. So, the City sponsored a sketchy New Markets Tax Credit financing scheme to cover the $2.4 million dollars short in private donations. Big mistake for Nashua taxpayers, but a win for Mayor Donchess. All this is done behind closed doors with closed meetings and minimal record access.
Most Nashua residents look around for bargains; however, Mayor Donchess did not do his diligence. If Mayor Donchess did his diligence, he would have never gone to the New Market Tax Credit to get the $2.4 million dollars. I say this because the mayor forgot to look at the fees that needed to be paid in order to obtain the NMTC. Total fees have come up to $1.714 million, and that is not including interest.
The most deceiving part of the financing of the Performing Arts Center is the fact that Mayor Donchess gave away the right of the taxpayer to review any information on the construction of the Performing Arts Center. Mayor Donchess handed over $28,108,850 dollars of Nashua taxpayers’ money to a private corporation without disclosing this to the public. In fact, he told the public it would be run as a public business. This action, by far, was the most deceitful act that Mayor Donchess made.
First, Mayor Donchess came up with this “Maximum Guarantee Price” of $15,500,000 for the Performing Arts Center. Truly another big lie by Mayor Donchess, and I can say that because as of December 31, 2022, the construction bills have totaled $28,609,446.50. How can Mayor Donchess say the construction will only cost $15.5 is easy. That figure only represented Harvey Construction costs and none of his sub-contractors – ex Plumbers, Electricians, etc. Talk about deceit.
And on top of all this, Mayor Donchess has “guaranteed” all payments of bills by the City of Nashua taxpayers. But the mayor worked around that too by paying “rent” to the Performing Arts Center to make sure that the taxpayers could cover the costs that the Performing Arts Center had to make on their loans. This rent starts at $500,000 a year and goes up to $670,000 over 25 years. Did anyone see that coming? How could you?
In reviewing all the documents, a resident can see that Mayor Donchess did not take into account the money coming out of the Nashua taxpayers’ pockets. Mayor Donchess chose to hide all this information from citizens, and that is fraud. As a matter of fact, the City of Nashua just actually put the loan of $7.1 million on the books in May 2023, 29 months after the city gave the loan. Deceitful.
One must also remember that in the “first” NMTC meeting in December 2021, led by Mr. Cannon, he stated that the NMTC loan was interest-free the first seven years. In January 2022, Mr. Cummings told the Board of Assessors that the loan was forgiven in 7 years. Talk about deceitful statements because neither of these two things happened and/or will happen.
I hope Nashua taxpayers remember these facts when they are casting their vote in November 2023 for Mayor.