Arrogance on the part of elected officials isn't limited to Vancouver and the Clark County Commission.
In Wenatchee, a town of 32,000, a bunch of folks came in and took advantage of the simple country-bumpkins, filling their rather greedy for government cash eyes with dollar signs by providing wildly optimistic (read "fraudulent") projections of revenue to a group of ignorant local yokels all-too-eager to jam it up the voter's behinds by putting them on the hook for tens of millions in bonds to build a palace that Vancouver likely couldn't support, and our little county is, perhaps 14 times the size this region provides for this palace.
Here, locally, the same kind of scam was run by the Yakima Millionaires, using the same kind of rip off projections, wildly optimistic (Read "fraudulent") revenue projections to a bunch of overgrown teenagers who desperately wanted to jam a ballpark down our throats.
And what did these two frauds have in common?
Neither set of cheerleaders wanted a vote.
The palace in Wenatchee was bonded and built without asking the people presumptively on the hook for the costs of building it. That lead to idiocy from the biggest cheerleaders when it failed, like this:
So.... what "vote" saved them?
A little background: two of the legislators behind this debacle, State Senator Linda Evans Parlette and Rep. Mike Armstrong, did everything they could to try and arrange for all of US to pay for THEM. They HAD to do something; in the eye of the local voter, THEY were largely responsible for putting them on the hook for this delusion of grandeur: Think locally, the Pollard Hilton which has yet to approach break even as we subsidize the Hilton's/City of Vancouver's failure.
But those efforts went nowhere as the rest of the state saw the inevitable outcome: if these two and this ripoff were bailed out, that would end any requirement that ANY government act responsibly in these matters because they would know, at the end of the day, that the state would come along and bail them out.
So, they FINALLY did the only thing left to do... what they SHOULD have done before one shovel of dirt was turned... what the clowns running the show around here SHOULD have done before they set up their own debacle called the CRC before they wasted one of the tens of millions they've dumped in the sewer:
They held a vote.
And they won.
To the people of the area, I envy you. You were FINALLY allowed to have a say, and that's a hell of a lot more than we ever get around here.
And correspondingly, as you VOLUNTARILY (but quite unnecessarily) assumed a debt you DID NOT HAVE TO TAKE ON, you lose the sympathy vote and are completely on your own as this waste of space continues to drain your revenues... since this tax is but the start and you can bet there will be more added later.
But then, just color me a cynic. Your governmental bodies would NEVER do that to you....
Would they?
Amazing how that democracy thing works, isn't it?
The SMART play would have been this:
But no one ever claimed that these people, like Leave-it or Stuart or Boldt, were anything LIKE "smart."
In Wenatchee, a town of 32,000, a bunch of folks came in and took advantage of the simple country-bumpkins, filling their rather greedy for government cash eyes with dollar signs by providing wildly optimistic (read "fraudulent") projections of revenue to a group of ignorant local yokels all-too-eager to jam it up the voter's behinds by putting them on the hook for tens of millions in bonds to build a palace that Vancouver likely couldn't support, and our little county is, perhaps 14 times the size this region provides for this palace.
Here, locally, the same kind of scam was run by the Yakima Millionaires, using the same kind of rip off projections, wildly optimistic (Read "fraudulent") revenue projections to a bunch of overgrown teenagers who desperately wanted to jam a ballpark down our throats.
And what did these two frauds have in common?
Neither set of cheerleaders wanted a vote.
The palace in Wenatchee was bonded and built without asking the people presumptively on the hook for the costs of building it. That lead to idiocy from the biggest cheerleaders when it failed, like this:
Someone should have stopped us
Saturday, December 10, 2011
If only ...
More:If only someone with sense and financial acuity could have dug through the wishful thinking and pipe dreams and told us it wasn’t going to work. Maybe a quick dose of sobriety might have saved us, and we would not have built Town Toyota Center. We would not be saddled with a $42 million debt and no means to pay it. We could not be blamed for financial contagion or embarrassed by our foolishness, lack of foresight, empty due diligence, poor judgment and pending insolvency. Maybe we would not be waiting for the lawyers of the world to scour us clean to satisfy part of our horrid debt. If only ...
So.... what "vote" saved them?
A little background: two of the legislators behind this debacle, State Senator Linda Evans Parlette and Rep. Mike Armstrong, did everything they could to try and arrange for all of US to pay for THEM. They HAD to do something; in the eye of the local voter, THEY were largely responsible for putting them on the hook for this delusion of grandeur: Think locally, the Pollard Hilton which has yet to approach break even as we subsidize the Hilton's/City of Vancouver's failure.
But those efforts went nowhere as the rest of the state saw the inevitable outcome: if these two and this ripoff were bailed out, that would end any requirement that ANY government act responsibly in these matters because they would know, at the end of the day, that the state would come along and bail them out.
So, they FINALLY did the only thing left to do... what they SHOULD have done before one shovel of dirt was turned... what the clowns running the show around here SHOULD have done before they set up their own debacle called the CRC before they wasted one of the tens of millions they've dumped in the sewer:
They held a vote.
And they won.
To the people of the area, I envy you. You were FINALLY allowed to have a say, and that's a hell of a lot more than we ever get around here.
And correspondingly, as you VOLUNTARILY (but quite unnecessarily) assumed a debt you DID NOT HAVE TO TAKE ON, you lose the sympathy vote and are completely on your own as this waste of space continues to drain your revenues... since this tax is but the start and you can bet there will be more added later.
But then, just color me a cynic. Your governmental bodies would NEVER do that to you....
Would they?
Amazing how that democracy thing works, isn't it?
Campaign 2012 through the eyes of UW faculty and studentsWenatchee dodges disaster from failed arena project
In a special election Tuesday, voters in Central Washington approved a tax increase to bail out the Town Toyota Center. Debt on the arena threatened to force Wenatchee into bankruptcy.
A tax increase in Central Washington that passed on Tuesday will help the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee pay off its $42 million debt. If the measure had failed, the arena most likely would have had to close its doors. (Photo by Larry Int-Hout)
WENATCHEE, Wash — Seattleites can probably remember when financing for Safeco Field was a topic of heated debate. A 1995 tax increase to help fund the stadium was narrowly defeated with 49.9% of the vote, and the city was left to ask the Washington State Legislature for help.
To help finance the stadium, Seattle formed a public facilities district with other surrounding cities to convince the state to contribute to the project.
Wenatchee had the same idea when they were looking for funding for an events arena in 2006. They formed the Greater Wenatchee Public Facilities District (PFD) with several surrounding towns and got tax money from the state to finance an arena.
But unlike Safeco, today Wenatchee’s Town Toyota Center is in serious financial trouble — to the tune of $42 million of debt that it appeared impossible to pay off, possibly forcing the city into bankruptcy.
That is until a special election in Chelan and Douglas counties yesterday yielded surprising results.
More:Voters in nine Central Washington municipalities approved a .1% sales and use tax increase that will help pay off the $42 million debt on the area’s community arena. The measure needed a simple majority to pass, but unofficial results show that it won about 65% of the vote.
The SMART play would have been this:
To others, like former Chelan Mayor Jay Witherbee, this tax increase to cities all around the area is not the answer. He says that the situation would have cleared up on its own. Without a tax increase on the table, he argues, the bond holders would have felt the need to negotiate a settlement when the PFD defaulted on the loan in December of last year.
“Greece just settled for 38 cents on the dollar, because bond holders know it’s better than nothing,” Witherbee said. “You’ve made an investment, taken a gamble, a risk, and it didn’t pay off. But it’s better than nothing.”That would have been the SMART thing to do.
But no one ever claimed that these people, like Leave-it or Stuart or Boldt, were anything LIKE "smart."
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