You may recall that the sales tax increase for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum only closed the public funding goal, and that the museum group was still $11 million short on the private funding side. Whenever they were asked about this at town hall meetings before the vote, the answer was always that the CEO Roundtable had committed to raising $8 million of the remaining money from private sources, and that the museum group is “confident” that they can raise the remaining $3 million not covered by that.
The vote took place in early April. It’s now late July, and the Journal Star reports today, “Officials are trying to bridge a $5 million gap in public and private dollars still needed.” So it sounds like the CEO Roundtable has been unsuccessful in raising their promised $8 million (shocker!), leaving not a $3 million gap, but a whopping $5 million gap. Huh. Who’d have thought that a group so unsuccessful in raising private funds for this thing over the past ten years would have so much trouble closing an $11 million gap now?
In other news, Caterpillar, the company that lost $112 million the first quarter of 2009 and has been laying off lots of its workers, donated $100,000 to the “Friends of Build the Block” campaign, according to campaign finance reports. That $100,000 went toward marketing materials that proclaimed, “Over a 25-month construction period beginning in late 2009, The Block project will employ 250 to 300 local workers per month and contribute $1.8 million in monthly labor payroll to our area’s economy.”
Only it won’t actually do that. Almost immediately after the referendum passed, Caterpillar announced that it wouldn’t be building anything this year because of the economic downturn. And they haven’t given a date when they will start building it, either. Presumably, it will be after the economy recovers. So much for our “home-grown economic stimulus package.”
But the good news is that Peoria will still get the higher taxes it wanted. Those are still scheduled to begin in January, whether anything gets built or not. Probably the museum group won’t wait for that final $5 million to be raised before they start building. They’ll just start building anyway, and then when they start running short of money toward the end of the project, they’ll have another capital campaign, or another referendum, or some other gimmick to pry more money out of taxpayers’ pockets. By then it will be “too big to fail,” you know.
I have never said that it is the RIGHT thing to do. There is no question of morality here. My stance is that whether you and kcdad agree or not we live in a country where the vote decides what happens.
The cost is not a concern to me because by passing a referndum to levy a tax we as a community decided we would foot a fairly large protion of the cost. I know your counter will be its still short funding but the tax is a major start.
Did I ever buy into the propaganda that this would be a Smith or a Science and Industry, absolutely not and I have never claimed it would be. Will it be better then the current facility? I believe so. Will better staff, facility and security create a situation where better exhibits are possible? I hope so.
I believe that something is better then nothing. I am willing to accept a museum that is not perfect because I would rather have a museum here in my lifetime then have to stare at a hole in the ground for the next 50 years and wait for the magical development fairy with endless funds and the ability to deliver exactly what everyone wants to come into town and work its magic.
The counter arguement seems to be that the plans, costs, public funding etc.. have all changed. Well stuff happens. Plans change, costs change the economy changes there are many variables that come into play on major developments and they constantly change.
CJ Summers….gah….largest proponent of development fairy
Stephen,
Fair enough, but…………………..
“I believe that something is better then nothing.”
That kind of thinking has gotten Peoria in [major] trouble far more often than not.
Spending MILLIONS of dollars, where ever the money comes from, because “something is better than nothing” is down-right dangerous, not to mention expensive.
Have you considered the long-range cost of this museum, or……………………
will we cross that bridge when we get to it?
“The counter arguement seems to be that the plans, costs, public funding etc.. have all changed. Well stuff happens. Plans change, costs change the economy changes there are many variables that come into play on major developments and they constantly change.”
Then it isn’t what “the people” voted for, is it?
I think, as adults, we need to more critically think about what we hear, see and read… from our government and from our media.
Stephen says:
What are you talking about? If this piece of property is so utterly worthless that no developer in his right mind would ever want to have anything to do with it…. well…. what does that say about the people who want to develop a museum on it?
It says that a privately funded development project that has to use privately collected money might not work there but a museum that is funded with a county tax is an option.
CJ maybe you havent noticed but downtown Peoria isnt exactly booming with development and the development that is interested are hotels asking for handouts. Maybe your right though if we just wait for that perfect developer someday maybe something will happen. 🙂
Stephen,
Part of the city-council/mayor’s job is to entice new development to the area. Instead of a tax paying, job producing business being located downtown; we will have an ‘entity’ that will from this day forward be a drain on local resources. Peoria City has a habit of focusing all of their efforts on cozy dream projects, without knocking on a few doors.
The cost of building this particular museum has skyrocketed! The building itself has been downsized from the original plans, yet the cost of building it has tripled. Most people haven’t even considered what it will cost to maintain the museum over the years [maintenance costs, employees wages, exhibit costs, etc]. I understand that museum’s are not in the business to make money. In fact, they are money pits. That is why they must have a large consistent source of [donor, govt.] income. Peoria Regional Museum has neither. As a last ditch effort, this thing had to go to a vote! Now, CAT is postponing [indefinitely] building its visitors center. As C.J. pointed out earlier, PRM has been trying for the last ten years, at least, to raise the needed funds. As you already know, they STILL do not have the funding needed to start construction.
P.S. Why did you move to Peoria?
Stephen: In one of your posts, you wrote that voting for the tax was for building and operations. Not so, it supposed to be only for building (construction). You wrote that this tax was not able to be used to fund education. Correct. Why? Because CAT, Illinois Mutual and Peoria Chamber put pressure on the County school boards to step aside for the museum tax to go first for the betterment of our community.
As far as money and elections — my two cents — similar strategy for the museum as used for the library vote. Get out the vote marketing. I attended every County sponsored meeting — heard all the questions and talked first hand with citizens — granted not a lot of people attended — many concerned about more taxes for no gain to them. Yes, I fully understood that the vote was 410 votes more on the yes side — and the vote is the vote. Nevertheless, hardly a mandate especially when one looks at the amount of money and time spent to get out the respective messages. It might be interesting reading to see the next campaign filings and the tax returns.
And I am for museums, not this plan — too many flaws. As for not being a moral issue — it takes 15 years to get one’s alley fixed because your wheel is finally able to disappear to 50%. Taxes for basics. Let’s have enough ingredients to keep the cupcake from decaying instead of more icing and sprinkles. No one is being fooled by the folly that has been being played out for decades in Peoria. It seems obvious (again just my opinion) that Peoria is reaping a lot of weeds and not much fruits and it is still lipstick on a pig.
So let’s agree to disagree. Hope this was not too personal. Cheers!
And for another idea for the Block — green space and a pool ala this video clip…..
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/dumpster-diving-in-a-bathing-suit/3628313550/?icid=VIDLRVNWS01