Mike has kept a lot of his campaign promises so far, so it is a good possibility he could pull this off, but I have some questions, assumptions and predictions (and I am sure Sy will chime in 🙂
“We don’t know what the plan is,” City Councilor Vernon Brown said. “We don’t know the size. We don’t know how it would be paid for.”
This is the biggest problem, how will you pay for it. If I was a guessing man, and I am, I think the city will use the Pavilion subsidy that runs out in 2014 to subsidize the place and pay down bonds;
The city issued a bond in the 1990s to help finance the conversion of the old Washington High School into the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science. That bond issue has been paid through the city’s entertainment tax. It’s scheduled to be paid off in 2014, which would free up about $3.8 million a year in additional revenue. But there might be competition for that money, since it could be used as a future revenue source for other projects.
Why do I think bonds? During Huether’s budget address he ranted and raved about how well the city has ‘managed debt’ and thanked everyone from Munson to meter maids for doing such a good job. He will just take out bonds for whatever private investors won’t pony up.
He also said there are private investors in Sioux Falls willing to help with the events center and that a key goal is to identify them to partner with such a project.
What worries me though is that he is trying to steer away from the public vote.
Though Huether declined to comment on details of the plan, he said a public vote on the project will be considered.
If he thinks he can just convince people to go along with his funding plan without a public vote, he is NUTS. Whether is it bonds, private investors or selling his bullshit platitudes, doesn’t matter, the voters better get to approve it or he will find out really quick how fast 2014 will come and go without an events center.