Lakeview Museum Board President Jim Vergon said at last night’s museum presentation to the Peoria County Board, “Over the past four years, our project has received $6 million towards the $30 million goal for public funding, leaving a $24 million gap.” He said this included federal, state, and local support. Later, Caterpillar Vice President Sid Banwart drove home the point: “We’ve looked at a lot of museum complexes around the country and around the Midwest, and we have not been able to find any that were built without substantial public funding,” he said.
What you need to know about these statements is that these museum officials are talking about cash funds. They’re not talking about other benefits such as land use, TIF benefits, etc. In fact, the City of Peoria has provided what I would consider “substantial” public investment in the museum. How much public investment? The city provided these numbers:
The following provides the City’s commitment, as approved by the Mayor and Council, to this project. Please note this analysis assumes a 2009 completion date and does not include federal grant funding.
Land value (65% of $10 million)1 $ 6,500,000 TIF through 20212 $ 7,525,892 Change in grade of Water Street $ 2,600,000 Sub-Total $16,625,892 Potential Extension of TIF3 $ 9,408,615 Total $ 26,034,507 1Based on appraised value.
2Assumes completion of the Caterpillar Center and Regional Museum by 2009.
3The original agreement proposes an expansion of the length of the TIF. This assumes the TIF is extended 15 years from the current expiration date.
To his credit, Jim Richerson did mention these items during his presentation, although he didn’t give any total dollar amounts. The $6 million in “public funding” to which Vergon referred is in addition to the $16-26 million from the city outlined above. That fact should be kept in mind while considering the museum-backers’ request for $24 million more from largely the same taxpayers.
It was funny to see all the politicos lined up last night to go to bat for the museum. It was a fantastic show of groveling by lakeview and a*S kissing by Lahood and the like. I really needed a bigger shovel. What if I were a businessman opening a place that would benefit ‘future generations’ of Peoria? Would the county give me money?
The land value shown is at 65% of the appraised value. Remember this is appraised and not market value. So basically they are getting the land for pennies. If the city sold that property and someone put in a revenue producing business that paid taxes we would see a huge input into the city coffers as well as economic development on the property. So which is going to benefit Peoria the most? Giving this land away and adding millions more to the giveaway or make it a revenue, tax, job producing parcel in the heart of Peoria. And to add insult to the whole project after we give the land away and hand out more of our taxpayers money we are going to be charged for parking and entrance fees. How many times do we have to pay?
I do not want even one penny of my real estate taxes going to another Peoria Park District run white elephant. Let the wealthy Park District supporting folks like the Maloof’s and O’Briens’s cough up their big bucks for this financial fiasco – and hey what about Bruce Brown coming to the rescue. You all love the Peoria Park District projects so much; get your checkbooks out and give until it really hurts.
This left by Mr Widmer on previous posting. I am curious to know how he is interpreting the museum groups’ request for money from Peo County Board. I hate to say it, but I told you so. They went with both hands out. Is there no shame? The real shame is this ridiculous museum plan will most likely ruin any chance Peoria ever had of getting a REAL history museum. The wrong people pushing the wrong plan…for years!
governments historically have been grand champions of throwing good money after bad. Will the County break with tradition and cut their losses on this one? Depends on how many mice start squeaking I supppose.
I think it might (and I repeat might) help to understand that not a penny of this supposedly $26M in support from the city provides any assistance to the Museum Group is achieving their target of $65M to build and outfit the museum. First, the TIF proceeds cannot be used for the construction of their building and second, they’re concerned that the City Manager is vastly over estimating the value of the TIF which is based on the property taxes which Caterpillar will end up paying on their Visitor Center. No one will really know the value of the TIF until there is an actual property tax bill on the CVC. So it’s important to the discussion to understand that the City has not contributed one penny toward the $65M targeted by the Museum Group for the actual construction of the facility.
Kat: I forwarded your comment to City Manager Randy Oliver, and he had this to say in response:
C.J. > if you want to clarify your understanding of this situation, I’d suggest you contact the Museum Group officials, Richerson or Vergon, and ask them of the $25M they’ve received to date in pledges and commitments toward their goal of $65M, how much has come from the city.
Kat — I understand what you’re saying. The city has not given any cold cash toward the capital campaign for the museum. I get it. But don’t you think that $65M goal would be $71.5M if the museum had to buy the land from the city instead of the city leasing the land to the museum for $1/year for 99 years? And isn’t there value in the TIF and infrastructure improvements? You act like all those things are worthless and meaningless.
Here’s what it boils down to for me, Kat. The original “comprehensive history museum” planned for the Sears block back in the late 1990s had an estimated cost of $10 million in 2000. That would be roughly 12 million in 2007 dollars. Why is it $65 million now? Partly because a bunch of other proposed museums were rolled into it, including the IHSA, AAHFM Oral History and Wall of Fame. But mostly it’s because Lakeview (arts, science, planetarium) was added to the mix.
I see no justification for moving Lakeview Museum downtown at taxpayer expense. The museum folks should leave Lakeview where it is and reconfigure the proposed downtown museum campus for only those museums that don’t already exist or already have their own campus. I bet that would take care of the $24M shortfall, and then some.