Wilmington Watcher ALERT: Stadium Petition Finally Ready to Go

UPDATE: The resistance movement is in full swing. Join us, get updates and details at facebook.com/nostadium
Our petition to stop taxpayer funding of the baseball stadium is finally ready to be downloaded and distributed for signatures. Please join us this Saturday, Feb. 18 from 12-2 behind the Convention Center downtown for our rally and signature drive. We have a slate of speakers lined up including:

Commissioner Rick Catlin
Curtis Wright
Tyler Cralle
Tony McGhee
Chris Farr
Frank Meares
Ben McCoy
and State Rep. Carolyn Justice via written statement

Download and distribute the official petition here: http://www.scribd.com/ben_mccoy_8/d/81953051-Stadium-Petition-FINAL-Contact-Sheet

Signatures must ONLY be from registered voters who live in the city limits of Wilmington. No other signatures will be deemed valid.

We are already underway with two other initiatives - more on those soon.

See you Saturday!

How Much Is the Stadium Going to Cost Each Taxpayer?

UPDATE: The resistance movement is in full swing. Join us, get updates and details at facebook.com/nostadium

With all the talk of the publicly-funded baseball stadium, there's typically not much attention paid to how much it's going to cost each Wilmingtonian.

Bill Saffo has been quoted as saying it will be $35 - 40M. I think that's a low ball, no pun intended. NHC County manager Bruce Shell has said it is estimated at $42M. Let's use that.

There are costs in addition to construction.

There's interest on the debt. The total cost of the convention center was about $60M, and total interest on the debt will be over $50M. Just this year, we paid $2.5M in interest on the convention center debt.

Let's be generous and give the stadium a lower interest rate than the convention center, and say it will accumulate $30M in interest on its debt.

There are also operational costs. It costs us $3M per year just to run the convention center. How much will it cost to run a baseball stadium? Again, let's be very generous and assume $1M.

Of course, these operational costs go on forever, but let's just assume they go on for only 30 years.

How much will everything cost the people of Wilmington?:

$42M in construction + $30M in interest + $30M in operational costs = $102M.

Total number of people in Wilmington? About 107,000.

This means a cost of $953 to every person living in Wilmington when everything is said and done.

Of course, not every person in Wilmington is a property tax payer, which is where the city gets its overwhelming majority of revenue. So, people paying property tax are going to get slammed. Of course, even if you're renting you indirectly pay property tax because the cost to the owner will go up.

Now, let's see what the bare minimum cost just for construction would be:

$42M/107k = $393/person.

Again, that isn't even including necessary costs such as interest or operational costs.

Is that the kind of money you want to pay? For some people that's nearly a rent check.

Everybody needs to go to facebook.com/nostadium and go to the protest Saturday, Feb. 18th at noon behind the convention center to sign this petition that can actually change the law in Wilmington.

Bobby Cox in Wilmington; Takes in a Performance at Thalian

UPDATE: The resistance movement is in full swing. Join us, get updates and details at facebook.com/nostadium

The stage was set. The actors took their places. Scripts were polished; hair and makeup perfect. Ex-Atlanta Braves GM Bobby Cox was situated in the audience expecting a well-executed production. The cast was the Wilmington City Council, and the play was entitled, "Building a Baseball Stadium with Other People's Money - Even though We Can't Afford it". The location was the city council chambers; ironically a floor directly above the historical Thalian Hall main stage in downtown Wilmington.

On Tuesday night, the Wilmington City Council met to act out the pre-planned script of unanimously approving the Memorandum of Understanding with Mandalay Entertainment and the Atlanta Braves to explore the idea of Wilmington taxpayers fully funding a baseball stadium, while the aforementioned entities collect the proceeds. Sounds like a real win-win... if you're not a Wilmington taxpayer.

Developer Chuck Schoninger, who owns the land where the proposed stadium is expected to be constructed, is quite cozy with local political leaders, as this marketing video demonstrates. The developer operates several outfits with the same purpose have made his intentions clear that he wants lots of public money for the project, in order for "it to work".

Schoninger created an international website promoting the EB-5 program as a way to try and attract Chinese investment into their expansive project as well; in addition to another website promoting his downtown development plans, including the baseball stadium, from a downtown perspective.

If this plan goes through, it will be a handsome payday for Schoninger, who has plans for a marina, hotel, and multi-use development complex; of which the stadium would be a center feature. Not a bad public-private partnership from Schoninger's perspective, who will benefit from the taxpayers investment in the stadium, the purchase of his land to build it, all without any investment of his own in the stadium project.

The combined efforts of the private developer, as well as the undying promised support of Mayor Bill Saffo and other local leaders have resulted in real paydirt from their perspective. The Atlanta Braves, Mandalay, and Bobby Cox are all interested in planting a Braves farm team here, with the Wilmington taxpayer being forced to absorb the costs, and take all the risk for their "investment". Schoninger will be rewarded for his persistence, since it appears the Wilmington City Council will be paying him a premium for their land with taxpayer dollars.

Schoninger said Mandalay officials expressed “serious” interest in bringing a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Atlanta Braves to Wilmington — a nearly $12 to $15 million investment for staff and players alone. He said he would sell the parcel of land needed for the stadium to the city and county for an undisclosed price, but none of the money currently being raised would be allocated for the stadium’s construction. LINK

Local leaders have willingly ignored study after study that clearly demonstrates that publicly funded stadiums are an economic liability for communities - not a boon.

Also, just as recently as late 2011, Mayor Bill Saffo stated in his campaign for re-election, a promise to voters that he would not support a property tax increase to pay for the baseball stadium. However, every discussion as of late involves Saffo talking about the distinct possibility of such an increase, given that the math doesn't work any other way, and the city is already tens of millions of dollars in debt, due to a plethora of other failed economic projects, such as the convention center.

It’s unclear how the city plans to pay for the stadium’s development; however, Saffo hinted at increased property taxes for Wilmington residents and businesses — reneging on a 2011 campaign promise where he told supporters he would not support a property tax increase to finance the stadium’s construction.

“We’re going to take a look at all of our options,” Saffo said during an afternoon press conference. “I’m candy-coating it, there might be a property tax increase.” LINK

Tuesday night's meeting ran more like a well-rehearsed performance, than an official meeting of city business. Council sat in their distinguished perches given the management from the Braves and Mandalay what they came to see. For good measure, Councilwoman Laura Padgett even ad-libbed a line about how she was "concerned" about taxpayers footing the entire bill for Mandaly's benefit, but then of course, voted for the measure anyway - the pre-determined and collectively agreed upon outcome of the meeting.

But a lot has to be decided, particularly how the city would pay for a potentially $35-40 million, 6,000-seat stadium and where it would be located. There's been a lot of talk about the riverfront but no commitment.

Councilwoman Laura Padgett had concerns about taxpayers footing the bill for the stadium.
"I'm going to vote for this to move forward because I think we'd be foolish to have an opportunity to like this and not look into it," she said, but added: "I think it's wrong for city taxpayers to pay an increased tax rate on their own to pay for this facility." LINK

The lone Republican, Neil Anderson, who also campaigned on the idea that he would be cautious and wary of such a raw deal for taxpayers, was obedient to the cause, and went along with the majority, as he was expected to do.

As part of the charade that this agreement is somehow going to be good for taxpayers and citizens, the local media and the city point to a study that was obviously paid for by the city, that states

An economic impact study done by Brailsford & Dunlavey found a baseball team and stadium in Wilmington could bring $62 million in initial impact in the first year and $9.8 million annually. LINK

Based on those numbers, it would seem that by the term "initial impact", they mean "taxpayer investment" - or "additional city debt obligations"; which would most certainly result in massive tax increases being levied at many different levels within the city in order to finance this initiative. As has always been a time-honored tradition in Wilmington government, is the city doesn't contract a study, or hire a firm to do an analysis, without a pre-determined outcome that echoes their position, or that supposedly supports their theory or analysis; given that many other real-world studies that analyze existing stadiums, paint a very negative economic picture, and demonstrate dire economic consequences on the community that is forced to pay for them.

Wilmington Downtown Inc. leader John Hinnant, referred to the Durham Bulls in his assessment of the popularity and success of minor league baseball teams. One must take note however, that the Bulls are the most (only?) well-known minor league baseball team in the nation, given the prominence of the box-office hit told on the silver screen starring Kevin Costner, entitled Bull Durham.

Perhaps if Hollywood takes note of Wilmington's team, draws up a script, dusts off Kevin Costner, and shoots a movie highlighting our little venture into minor league baseball, we'll have a chance at economic success. It would be a fitting addition to this saga, given all of the acting and dramatic performances already in play.

Broke WAVE Transit Puts Four Video Cameras in Every Bus

WAVE's annual budget is about $7M and they only take in about $1M through fares. The rest comes from intergovernmental transfers.

There's no mention of this being funded by grant money.

StarNews:

Four cameras on each of WAVE Transit's 45 buses constantly monitor the comings and goings of passengers with video and audio recordings. Signs on the buses alert passengers of the equipment.

"All passengers of this vehicle are subject to having their image and voice recorded," the signs read.

The cameras, purchased and installed in 2010, cost Wave about $100,000, said Albert Eby, Wave executive director. They replaced older cameras and offer a much more detailed look inside and outside the buses.

I just realized that it doesn't say if outfitting each bus costs $100k or if outfitting the entire fleet costs that, but I'd find it hard to believe they outfitted the entire fleet for $100k.

Wilmington Signs Up for Baseball Debt

Despite every indicator that it's a bad idea, the Wilmington City Council has shown that they will belligerently ignore economic reality and move forward with plans to raise taxes on the people of Wilmington to buy a baseball stadium for outside investors to profit from.



In typical ego-stroking form, Mayor Saffo gave the annual State of the City speech this past week, and referenced his plans to go forward with pursuing the baseball stadium in downtown Wilmington.

The agreement, Saffo said, would likely include the city buying property and building a stadium that could cost between $35 and $40 million. Mandalay would operate the stadium.
"It might be a tax increase to pay for it," Saffo said. http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120201/ARTICLES/120209999/1015/news0101?Title=City-signs-up-for-baseball

Within hours of this statement, the Star News released the new figures on area unemployment.

The Wilmington area's jobless rate jumped to 10.6 percent in December from 9.8 percent in December 2010, according to figures released Wednesday by the N.C. Commerce Department's Labor and Economic Analysis Division. http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120201/ARTICLES/120209984/1002?Title=Wilmington-area-jobless-rate-jumps-to-10-6-&tc=ar

However, the stadium, although it will require more money being forcefully taken out of the struggling local economy, will provide the much-needed economic relief that we all so desperately need... right?

Independent analyses of the economic and employment impacts of sports stadiums have consistently found that there is no statistically significant economic benefit to building a stadium. An analysis by Robert Baade of Lake Forest College studied thirty cities over thirty years and found that twenty-seven experienced no significant impact from new stadiums, while only three cities experienced a negative economic impact. http://www.stadiummouse.com/stadium/economic.html

But jobs will be created, according to Saffo and friends.

A common argument heard from stadium proponents is that the construction of a new sports stadium or arena will generate thousands of new jobs for the local community. Robert Baade found that "sports tend to produce low-skilled, low-paid employment such as: food and souvenir vendors, security personnel, hotel and restaurant employees."(14) If a city encourages a movement toward this kind of employment by subsidizing sports, the city will find its economic development lagging behind development in the rest of the region. In other words, jobs created by stadium and arena construction and/or operation do not, on their own, generate significant tax revenues for a city. Taxes generated by the operation of a factory or similar industry would likely be greater than that of a stadium or arena, and therefore are more valuable to a city from a revenue standpoint. http://www.stadiummouse.com/stadium/economic.html

Often one will hear Mayor Saffo and other proponents talking of the "wonder" it will be to hear the sound of wooden bats cracking on the river. However, the only cracking sound we will hear, if this ill-conceived operation goes forward, is the sound of the local economy completely falling apart.

Petition by iPetitions.com

Often times, taxes must be raised to accommodate the funding for additional police officers or firemen, or other critical needs in the community that must be funded with public dollars. Even those issues are met with some resistance from the community, when attrition seems like the better and more feasible scenario. However, this issue is that of a private stadium, that an outside conglomerate will operate and profit from, and can only do it if our taxes are raised to pay for it? This is absolutely ludicrous, and really demonstrates just how out of touch Saffo and the rest of the city council really is.

When the downtown convention center was being forced on us, we were given the same platitudes and speeches about economic viability and job creation. Saffo would kindly like you to now forget about that, as it has been demonstrated that the convention center will now operate in the red indefinitely. The Wilmington Watcher has proven that your tax dollars pay for the convention center in addition to ROT funds; even though city leaders continually deny this is the case.

The issue of not only using, but RAISING taxes in this economy for the purposes of a few developers and investors getting richer off of the backs of taxpayers, is not a conservative vs. liberal issue in any way. This is an issue of an overreaching, arrogant government against the people is supposedly serves. Property taxes are already high due to the reckless and excessive spending by city government on unneeded and wasteful projects. This would add over $40 million to that tab.

It's time to finally say enough is enough. Please Like our Facebook page here, and show your objection to this idiocy. Also, make sure you sign the petition against it that will be presented to the city: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-tax-dollars-for-baseball-stadium/

More info on the stadium and why it's a bad idea here:
http://wilmingtonwatcher.blogspot.com/2012/01/wilmington-baseball-stadium-facts.html
http://www.stadiummouse.com/stadium/economic.html
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/

A Park or Economic Freedom?

Well, the city continues in its never-ending blood-lust for a park downtown.

Don't get me wrong. It'd be nice to have a park downtown. But that doesn't mean you can trample property rights. It also doesn't mean that what would go up wouldn't be better and more beneficial for the community than a park.

Think of the potential negatives of a park:

1. What can you do on a piece of grass that you can't already do downtown? Does the city actually think there's going to be Ultimate Frisbee competitions on this small patch of land?



2. There's a possibility it becomes a haven for homeless people, or who knows what (possibly even "Occupiers." *shiver*)
3. When its city property it no longer pays property tax.

Again, this doesn't even mention that the new development could be much better than a park, or the potential chilling effect this could have on downtown development, or even development in Greater Wilmington.

The city held up a development called "The View" with these same principals for years and now we have a "wall of keys" on Front St. downtown, which Bill Saffo called "art," instead of a building with apartments and shops.

Does anyone remember the Gateway project? The city did the same thing to those developers and nearly bankrupted them in the process.

Oh well. Who's going to want to build here after a while? Who's going to want to come here? I can tell you that many in the development community are already fed up with the city government and have been for a long time. Is it any surprise that 9 out of 10 downtown business owners say that it's easier to do business with other city governments that it is with Wilmington?

StarNews:

The city of Wilmington has considered shelling out more than $2 million to buy the half of the Water Street deck as the decades-old structure that was planned for redevelopment sits unchanged.

For about a year, the city and PB&G Partners LLC have locked horns over what to do with the deck that both entities co-own. The original plan was for PB&G to demolish the deck and transform it into condos and shops. But the contract between the city and PB&G, which gave the company three years to start development, ended in 2010. Now the city has an option to buy back the company's half at $3 million or market value, whichever is less.

In February, City Manager Sterling Cheatham, on direction from city council, sent a letter to PB&G Partners LLC stating the city would like to enter into discussions about buying the deck for its appraised value, $2.4 million, minus the approximately $350,000 the city claims the developers still owe for parking receipts. [This is another whole issue that I'm surprised the developers don't slam the city on.]

[...]PB&G balked at the city's offer to buy the deck and presented its plans for a new development to council in April.

[...]"The city has fundamentally ignored all of our development plans," [developer Bud Dealey] said.

Dealey said the group has since lost its U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding to transform the property into upscale apartments for people over 55 years old with shops below as well as space for parking and a city park. [No doubt because they were held up for so long]

"I doubt that we're ever going to be permitted to build anything," he said.

[...]The city's goal with Water Street deck was to turn part of it into a city park.

Note to anyone else who may have land that the city wants for a park: you have no rights.

What Really Happened in the County Commission Meeting?

I typically don't read the supplemental material for the County Commission meetings. I just rely on the "news" to give me the bullet points of what happened. Of course, I regularly find things that interest me in the City Council supplemental material that aren't reported in the news, so with the primaries coming up, I took a look to get a better idea of what's going on in the County.

It should be pointed out that all these items passed unanimously, so if you have a favorite County Commissioner ("I like the shy one!"), you're plum out of luck.

The first thing that interested me was submittal of a grant application to the Institute for Museum and Library Services, a public agency, for a 2012 "National Leadership Planning Grant."

This grant was for $50k and requires at least a 1/3 match. New Hanover County, however, went above and beyond and volunteered to pay $59k they got the grant.

What will the grant help us do?

It will help "encourage development of collaborative models and projects that can strengthen the position of museums and libraries as community anchors."

Get that? It's about strengthening the position of museums and libraries.

Now, I consider myself a free-marketer. I'm familiar with the history of private museums and private libraries before the government-forced take-over. In today's environment, however, which is extremely far from a free market, I'm ok with some public money going to things like libraries. A competitive private market for libraries has been destroyed and I don't see one cropping up at this point.

That said, what will this money be going toward?

The planning project defines three outcomes:

Did everyone get that? This is a "planning project." Yet again, they're simply planning for things. They're not putting anything into action.

For $109k, this better be a pretty good plan.

It continues:

1) Completion of a needs assessment regarding the availability, distribution, and nature of
STEM learning opportunities available in the community that will permit identification of
strengths, gaps, opportunities, and priorities for development;
2) Development and implementation of manageable assessment tools that can be used to
establish standards for quality STEM learning experiences and contribute to continued
improvement; and
3) Establishing a framework and understanding for a community -wide collaborative to
coordinate, develop, and expand high quality informal and formal STEM learning.

Ok, so for $109k they'll be "assessing needs"; they'll be developing "assessment tools"; and ...I don't even know how to translate that last piece of gibberish into English.

Anyway, that's what the money is going to. The overwhelming majority goes to personnel, including $24k to hire a graduate assistant, and $11k in benefits.

Nice, huh?

Next item

Civil process fees went up in August. That means people will have to pay more to get served papers and that the government will take in more.

Is this new revenue used to lessen the tax burden on everyone else? Of course not. It's used for more spending.

The new revenue is about $289k and it's going to be used on a bunch of things. $43k on two new cars; $15k on radios; and $150k is going to be used to move the Civil Division, apparently into a new building or something.

Thank goodness we got that $289k in new revenue because it turned out we needed every bit of it!!

Next

We submitted a request for a $400k/per year "Community Transformation Grant" to the NC Division of Public Health. The grant would last for a total of 5 years, so the total would be $2M.

Now, I don't have a problem with us making a grant request if it's for something that we actually do ourselves. If it's simply superfluous, some additional thing we don't need and shouldn't be doing, I don't want it.

Plus, this is state money and not federal money, so it's even closer to home.

What would this $400k per year be going toward? It's primarily to fund the salaries and benefits of four full-time "Health Educators," one "Administrative Support Technician," and a half-time "Policy Intervention Specialist."

What are the goals of this group?

Basically eliminate smoking wherever they can. For those of you familiar with Wilmington's history, this can include private establishments like bars. 7 of the group's 11 goals mention tobacco or smoking. So, if we get this grant, it looks like we'll have five years of a couple of busy bodies bothering us to stop smoking.

I might take up smoking just so I can blow some in their faces.

Other goals include: "increase the number of convenience stores that increase the availability of fresh produce and decrease the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages"; and "increase the number of communities that implement comprehensive plans for land use and transportation." Yup, more zoning and public transportation. That's what's good for you.

Make no mistake, this is all fueled by Obamacare. It even mentions that it should try to achieve goals as laid out in the Affordable Care Act.

Next

Apparently, NHC's code violations are too expensive to go before a Small Claims judge. So what did NHC do this week? Made it easier to take violators to court.

We changed the fines from $200 to a $100/day fine for a first offenses. For a third offense, it's now $300/day down from $500.

Again, it's explicitly mentioned that this isn't to go easier on people; it's to be able to take them to court more easily.

We also added the section: "The zoning official may withhold or deny any permit, certificate, occupancy, or other form of authorization on any land, building sign, structure, or use in which there is an uncorrected violation."

Yup, a zoning official can now kick you out of ...wherever if there's some code violation, including if there's something wrong with your building sign.

Welcome to the Fascist States of United America.

Next

Apparently, the county licenses electricians, plumbers and mechanics. They probably license more occupations, but those were the only ones mentioned.

Here is a description of the general powers of these licensing boards:

Brief on Functions: To issue certificates to all persons who (1) provide satisfactory evidence to the Board regarding their training and education; (2) pass an examination administered by the Board, and (3) provide evidence of two years of experience in their perspective fields. To administer written or oral examination quarterly on the first Tuesday in January, April, July and October. The Board may revoke certificates and reinstate certificates in accordance with the County Code.

In case you don't know, licensing is a joke.

Why should the government be able to tell me who can work on my toilet? Frankly, I think I can make that decision myself.

The licensing board is also comprised of people who have an interest in the industry, so they're not exactly neutral. Not to impugn the integrity of the county's boards, but it's very possible a board could use its power to revoke a competitor's license.

I'm not sure if this licensing board was set up on the initiative of the state or county. My guess would be the state. But I certainly hope we use our authority to effectively deregulate these professions.