Tag Archives: Peoria County

Museum Block, Peoria County

County putting cart before the horse, twice

8 Comments

On the Peoria County Facilities Committee agenda for Tuesday is a resolution to secure federal funding to build a nearly $7 million (completely unnecessary and wasteful) parking deck on the so-called museum block downtown. There are two problems with this plan, as I see it:

  1. The county doesn’t own the land on which they want to build. The City of Peoria still owns the former Sears block. The agreement the County wants to approve is just between the County and the Federal government, although it does include a commitment that the County will acquire “in its name…all right-of-way necessary for this project.” Last I heard, there hadn’t been much dialog with the City about transferring title to the land.
  2. The museum project doesn’t have all its money raised yet. During last year’s run up to the referendum vote, the County stated on numerous occasions that they wouldn’t start construction until all the money for the museum project was raised. The money hasn’t been raised yet, so why would the County consider starting construction yet?

If this resolution is passed by the Facilities Committee, it should be rejected by the full Board. It puts the cart before the horse, twice.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Same song, second verse from museum group

26 Comments

March 6, 2009:

Although a funding gap of about $11 million to build the Peoria Riverfront Museum would remain even if Peoria County voters approve a sales tax increase next month, project officials say they are confident a successful referendum will trigger the final donations.

“We will go out after the referendum is passed, and while it won’t be a piece of cake, we do feel that once we get over the hurdle of the referendum, the other $11 million can be put together,” said Mark Johnson, project manager of the Caterpillar Experience, the Cat visitor’s center that will share the Downtown block with the museum.

April 8, 2009:

The $40 million county contribution to the $77 million museum doesn’t fully fund the project; a $10 million funding gap remains…. Officials are looking at the possibility of federal economic stimulus money to help pay for the parking garage and other public money in a capital budget out of Springfield. Vergon said he thinks the money will be raised one way or another.

“We’ve got a capital campaign to restart,” he said. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to do that because most of the people that had not pledged or committed were concerned whether we’d get all the public money or not, and it looks like that seems to be behind us now.”

May 21, 2009:

Initially short about $10.2 million even with the $40 million raised through the voter-approved Peoria County sales tax increase, the funding gap to build the Peoria Riverfront Museum is narrowing.

“We knew there were people who didn’t want to formally commit to a donation until after the referendum to see which way the vote went,” said Michael Bryant, the CEO of Methodist Medical Center, who also heads the group of area leaders and business people – called the CEO Roundtable – that is raising money for the museum.

“We are seeing that those people are stepping up right now and committing money to this project.” Bryant said the new shortfall is about $7.2 million, meaning the project has received about $3 million in donations since the quarter-percent sales tax referendum was approved by voters 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent 44 days ago. “We’d like to see the gap closed all the way by the end of the summer,’ Bryant said. ‘I’m cautiously optimistic it can be done.”

February 4, 2010:

Governance agreements for the Peoria Riverfront Museum are within sight, paving the way for construction to begin this summer, though the Museum Collaboration Group is saddled with a $7.2 million revenue gap.

So, to sum up, there was a $10.2 to $11 million private funding gap before the referendum in 2009. Not to worry, museum supporters assured us. Once the referendum passes, they were confident they could raise the rest of the money. After the referendum passed, the CEO Roundtable went to work and raised $3 million in a little over a month.

And that’s it. Since May 2009, the funding gap has remained at $7.2 million. A child conceived when the last dollar was raised for the museum could have been born by now.

Not to worry, though. Lakeview Museum Board of Directors Chairman Tom Bardwell told the County Board on Thursday how they plan to close that gap:

We strongly believe that, through research and also conversations in the community and everything that’s happening right now, we believe there’s about $4 million that can be raised in private dollars here in Peoria County or in the local area.

We also believe there’s about a million and a half dollars — in fact, we have a target for about $3 million of line-of-sight that we can see, but let’s be conservative and say a million and a half dollars — from either grants, foundations, other government entities that may make pledges towards this project, which basically takes you five and a half million.

And then there’s also a third avenue of funding we’re pursuing — some of you may have heard some of this — something called New Market Tax Credits. New Market Tax Credits are something we’re pursuing for this project. We believe, conservatively, $4 million should be our target number.

So, our funding strategy is targeted to raise about nine and a half million dollars which is obviously about the $7.2 million gap, but obviously we want to be as conservative as possible in those numbers, so we hope to get there as soon as we can….

Note that their plan to close the private funding gap includes efforts to get $4 million in public funding via the New Markets Tax Credit program. They’re also trying to get public funding from “other government entities.” And despite the fact they’ve not raised any money the past nine months, we’re supposed to believe there’s still $4 million in private funding out there based on their “research” and “conversations.” These are the same people who assured us the funding gap would be closed right after the referendum passed.

Why should we believe any of this? What possible reason is there to have any confidence in the museum group’s fundraising plans? In fact, other than the $3 million raised after the referendum passed, fundraising efforts have been effectively stalled for years, which is why the museum group came to Peoria County for tax funding in the first place.

Instead of this eternal effort to bleed the region for money, the museum should do what it should have done years ago: change its plans. Redesign the building so it’s more efficient to build. Build up instead of out, which will free up more of the block for private commercial development. Dispense with the parking deck, as there is already a glut of available parking downtown, especially along the riverfront. Cutting the deck (pun intended) and/or redesigning the building would also remove the engineering challenge/expense of putting a boomerang-shaped building partially on top of a rectangular deck. If just those things were done, millions of taxpayer dollars would be saved, and the project could be built without any additional fundraising.

The first step in problem solving is to correctly identify the problem. The problem here is not a fundraising problem. It’s a design problem. The project is too large and too expensive. Caterpillar should be using its influence to get the museum group to do their part in reducing expenses instead of bullying the County into building something unaffordable and unsustainable.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County caving to Cat on museum

47 Comments

Looks like the Peoria County Board is set to capitulate to Caterpillar’s demands. In Caterpillar’s letter of January 20, they gave this ultimatum:

Our message to the Peoria County Board is clear: We must have a deadline or the work for the museum project will continue to languish; the county must modify its governance demands to allow museum activists and professionals to run the PRM; and the Board must help close the funding gap caused by the loss of New Marketing Tax Credits … the county’s contribution needs to be the full $40 million authorized.

In the absence of a positive response from the Peoria County Board by February 12, 2010, Caterpillar doesn’t believe this project can be viable. Failure to move forward in a responsive manner will result in Caterpillar withdrawing its funding commitment for a PRM and termination of our plans to move forward with the Caterpillar Visitor Center.

According to Peoria County Board member Merle Widmer, the County has drawn up an agreement that dutifully complies with Caterpillar’s demands. “The board will be asked to increase the amount voted to give the museum committee to $40 million instead of the $34.7 million the board voted on to help make up the shortage in the endowment,” he reports. “To accept ownership of the building, the County Board will be asked to approve a minimum of three contracts totaling 120 pages . . . and containing such language ‘that a board member can be removed without cause’, an advisory committee (all agreeing to the museum mission) of not more than 60, several layers of boards with the county owning the building forever.”

And if you ever thought the County Board was a professional, deliberative body, looking out for the best interests of taxpayers and thoughtfully considering both sides of an issue, Mr. Widmer adds an account of this conversation, recorded in closed session when at a meeting from which he was absent: “…Mike Phelan, Democrat County Board member [told] the Executive Committee to disregard Merle Widmer and get on with building this museum. He said the public voted on it and the public wants this museum…. He also said board members comments should be limited tommorrow afternoon and Board Chairman, Tom O’Neill said something about ‘putting a sleeping pill in his water.'”

Impolite comments about fellow board members aside, Mr. Phelan forgets that voters were told in town hall meetings that the county would be financing $34.7 million of the cost, and that the museum group would be responsible for raising the rest of the money. Caterpillar is blaming the County for the supposed loss of $5 million in New Market Tax Credits, and are demanding $5.3 million in additional funding from sales tax receipts. No independent proof of this supposed “loss” has been produced, at least publicly. Nevertheless, it appears the County is willing to take the rap for the alleged loss and plug the hole with yet more public funding. All the while, there is still a huge question of whether the other private money that has been supposedly raised will materialize. Most of it is in the form of pledges that have yet to be collected.

A Committee of the Whole meeting will take place today (Thursday) at 3 p.m. at the Peoria County Courthouse.

2010 Election

Local Election Results 2/2/2010

26 Comments

Peoria County Sheriff:

  City County Total Pct
x-Mike McCoy 5,911 4,511 10,422 72.88%
Vince Wieland 2,010 1,869 3,879 27.12%

Peoria Board of Education, District 3:

  City County Total Pct
Ernestine Jackson 1,144 5 1,149 17.59%
x-Christopher Crawford 3,435 17 3,452 52.84%
Jeff Lickiss 1,921 11 1,932 29.57%

Peoria County Board, Dist. 1:

  Total Pct
David Williams 109 42.91%
x-Bonnie Hester 145 57.09%

Peoria County Board, Dist. 5:

  Total Pct
x-Rachael Parker 248 54.75%
Bud Sous 205 45.25%

Brimfield Community Unit School District 309 $13.9 million bond to build a new high school:

  Total Pct
x-Yes 802 61.93%
No 493 38.07%

10th Judicial Circuit (Barra vacancy) – Republican:

  Peoria (City) Peoria Tazewell Putnam Marshall Stark Total Pct
x-Michael Risinger 3,029 2,791 6,823 162 566 508 13,879 47.13%
Kate Gorman 4,083 2,760 5,512 171 673 366 13,565 46.06%
Verne Dentino 625 575 668 23 81 32 2,004 6.81%

10th Judicial Circuit (Vespa vacancy) – Republican:

  Peoria (City) Peoria Tazewell Putnam Marshall Stark Total Pct
x-John Vespa 4,077 3,312 4,688 191 807 489 13,564 46.84%
Valerie Umholtz 2,432 1,837 6,447 111 326 222 11,375 39.28%
Bruce Thiemann 1,177 879 1,607 55 164 140 4,022 13.89%
2010 Election, City of Peoria, Comcast, Peoria County, Peoria Mayor, Peoria Public Schools, Traffic

Blogging Bits and Pieces

28 Comments

Here are some odds and ends that I just don’t feel like writing a whole post about:

  • It looks like District 150 has just about settled on a new superintendent, and her name is Grenita Lathan. She’s currently the “interim deputy superintendent at California’s San Diego Unified Schools.” Other than that I don’t know much about her, and there’s surprisingly little on Google, Lexis-Nexis, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, or any number of additional sources I checked. Oh, there are some snippets here and there. You can see some interview footage with her here. Commenters on another post have several links to quotes and information they find troublesome. Some have already passed judgment. I’m kind of old-fashioned, though. I like to wait until someone actually screws up before I start criticizing them. From what I’ve heard, the first thing she wants to do is purge the administration of unnecessary and ineffective administrators. I certainly can’t complain about that.

  • John Vespa was not endorsed by the Journal Star to succeed his brother as the 10th Judicial Circuit judge. The reason they give for passing him over is that “Vespa fell below the 65 passing grade” on something called the bar poll “and is ‘not recommended.'” They say the bar poll (where responses are anonymous) is “controversial,” but they evidently believe it. Not surprisingly, the Vespa campaign begs to differ. They report: “To understand the relevance of the bar poll … it is important to look at … the number of people participating. There are 911 lawyers in the Circuit that are eligible to participate in the poll, according to the ARDC website. Of those 911, there were only 152 that registered an opinion. (16.3%) The majority of those 152 felt John met the requirements of the office. Of course John would expect to have some legitimate detractors, particularly given the fact that half of his practice is devoted to criminal defense. In fact, it would be troubling if he did not. (All of his opponents practice for the most part, civil law only).” As the Journal Star would say, “Voters can make of that what they will.”

  • One of my readers recently told me about this site called “How We Drive” — and specifically, this post on “Parking Availability Bias.” Very cool site full of interesting information.

  • The “religious group” that the city is considering to operate the public access channels on Comcast’s cable system is called GPS-TV, and is located in Washington, Illinois. Here’s their website.

  • You can download a transcript (PDF format) of Mayor Ardis’s State of the City address here. Of course, the biggest announcement of the speech was this: “I have spoken at some length with County Board Chairman Tom O’Neill and we are prepared to put together a group that will be charged with exploring the opportunity to move Peoria City?County towards combined municipal government.” It will be interesting to see what recommendations that group makes in the future. Will it just be combining certain functions, or a total UNIGOV proposal?
Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum board agreement reached

11 Comments

The Journal Star is reporting that an agreement has been made between Peoria County and the Museum Collaboration Group on who will run will the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum.

The agreement reached Monday – after the two sides appeared stalemated on Friday – calls for a governing board of between 17 and 22 people, according to [County Administrator Patrick] Urich. A minority of the members – eight, nine or 10, depending on the final size of the board – would be representatives of one of the five agencies that constitute the museum collaborative group. […] A majority of the board would be residents of the county unaffiliated with any group in the museum collaborative group. There would be no representative from county government.

Also:

Urich said the exact relationship between the museum board of directors and the county will be spelled out in the by-laws. The county would own the building, but the board would operate the museum.

And:

“We would be looking for the best and the brightest from the community for a seat on the board,” Urich said.

Here’s how this will work in practice: A bunch of people who are politically connected (the main requirement for being considered “best and brightest” in Peoria), but know nothing about how to operate a museum, will be appointed to the museum board. They will all look to the Lakeview appointees as the “experts” on museums, and vote in accordance with their recommendations. Eventually, they’ll get busy with other things and stop coming to a majority of the meetings — just enough will show up to maintain a quorum. At that point, the majority of those who actually attend will be Museum Collaboration Group members. Their meetings will not be open to the public. Poor decisions will continue to be made, leading to chronic underfunding problems, requiring tax revenue for operations. The project will be determined to be “too big to fail,” given its huge initial cost and prominent placement on the riverfront, so tax money will be diverted to keeping it afloat in perpetuity. It will draw the same number of annual visitors as the current Lakeview Museum by year three, at which point plans will be drawn up to expand the museum (at taxpayer expense, of course) so it can draw more visitors. Peoria County voters will approve more funding.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum odds and ends (UPDATED)

35 Comments
  • From the Wall Street Journal: “Ten Things Museums Won’t Tell You.” Number 7: “Our priceless treasures are languishing in storage.” Number 9: “You think our building is ugly; we say it’s one of a kind.”
  • The County is still hashing out a redevelopment agreement with the Peoria Riverfront Museum (PRM), the City of Peoria, and Caterpillar. I received a draft copy anonymously through the mail. One of the items: “PRM will commence construction of the Project if and when all conditions precedent are satisfied, including receipt of funds equal to the entire Project Budget, plus a project contingency in a to be determined amount.” Another interesting provision states that once PRM is up and running, Lakeview Museum will cease to exist. I’ll post a copy of the document this evening.
  • So, how much is the entire “Project Budget” and how much in funding has been received? According to an October 22 letter to the County, the total project budget is $79,486,662. The total pledged dollars: $73,285,140. Since then, the state has passed a bill (still waiting for the governor’s signature, I believe) allocating $5 million in additional funds to the museum, which would bring that total up to $78,285,140. That leaves a remaining funding gap of $1,201,522. However, most interesting is this statement (emphasis mine): “The total amount collected for the project to this point is $14,244,543.”
  • Merle Widmer has his own update on the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum.

UPDATE: As promised, PDF Link here is the document.

Peoria County

Alas, poor Urich

6 Comments

I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use that headline. Today, I have one.

Journal Star county beat and occasional society reporter Karen McDonald writes in Monday’s “Word on the Street” column that County Administrator Patrick Urich is under scrutiny by some County Board members, “amid growing concerns of lagging communication and issues related to the museum, Bel-Wood Nursing Home and the deficit budget.”

“I think we need better communication. We need to tackle these problems. We need to build better policy,” said board member Mike Phelan…. “It seems like the board isn’t fully informed at all times about what’s going on,” board member Pat Hidden said. “It was my understanding that the County Board made the rules and we were his boss. Maybe I was wrong. It’s like the County Board is just puppets now.”

Board members now want to do a formal performance evaluation of Mr. Urich. My guess is that he’ll come through it with flying colors. In fact, board members might just discover a new-found appreciation for the job he does. It will also give disgruntled board members a chance to explain the reason for their displeasure with Urich’s performance, and give him the opportunity to mend those relationships.

I don’t always agree on policy with Patrick, who also happens to be my neighbor, but I’ve always found him to be candid, professional, affable, and accessible. We’ve sparred quite a bit over issues involving the proposed downtown museum (which is still underfunded, by the way), but our disagreements have never gotten personal. My guess this is just a misunderstanding among some board members and it will all get worked out once they get a chance to sit down and discuss it with Patrick.

Museum Block, Peoria County

County takes charge of museum project

14 Comments

PRM LogoI received a copy of the following letter in the mail from an anonymous source. The letter is on State’s Attorney letterhead and is signed by Kevin Lyons. It’s not addressed to anyone in particular — in fact, it looks more like a memo than a letter:

RE: Persons and organizations vested in the Peoria Riverfront Museum project

On Thursday, August 13, 2009, the Peoria County Board certified a necessary resolution that will inform the Illinois Department of Revenue that, commencing January 1, 2010, a special sales tax shall be collected throughout the County of Peoria (County) to carry out the objectives of the March, 2009, referendum. The County is pleased to partner with your efforts, and with the fine men and women of Caterpillar, to organize and shape a superior project that, when complemented by The Caterpillar Experience, will serve well the many interests of this enterprise and all of Central Illinois.

To that end, the County of Peoria will provide the appropriate guidance for creating the organization(s) necessary to develop and to carry out the objectives of the project. As this is no time to learn as we go, I have engaged well experienced counsel at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery to help provide for this important detail and direction. I have, in part, carefully selected this reputable firm because of their long history of experience with issues relative to museums, including those public and private and blended, and their appreciation for the broad collaboration of interests that birthed and brought this project to its place today.

Because it will be largely funded by public money, through sale of non-general obligation revenue bonds, it is important that the project commence and operate in compliance with public policy and statutes. A gathering of all interested parties will be planned for September so that the County may provide detailed framework that can be followed in order to formally organize, commence, develop, construct, and carry through the project.

This will involve, but certainly not be limited to, the following items:

  1. The organization and eventual tax exempt qualification of a museum authority. The museum authority would serve as lead coordinator for the project’s space, programming, and development.
  2. A description of roles and responsibilities of a museum authority and the steps required to form a board of directors and all other necessary project components.
  3. An explanation of how funding will be delivered and how the County and the museum authority will develop and refine the project, and how entities (licensees) will occupy and operate within the project.
  4. As with any County capital development project, construction of the project would be bid, let and overseen/administered by the County.
  5. The County would engage the museum authority to operate the project pursuant to the terms of an operating agreement and, upon completion of construction of the project, and pursuant to the operating agreement, the county would deliver the project to the museum authority for operation.
  6. The museum authority would annually account to the County regarding financial performance and community benefit.
  7. A clear and partnered coordination with Caterpillar, Inc., to insure that the project and The Caterpillar Experience, and the many shared goals and responsibilities attendant thereto, are smoothly addressed and accomplished.
  8. Although licensees and entities may be otherwise self-identified, it is understood that the project will be named exclusively Peoria Riverfront Museum.

    9. Your overwhelming efforts, along with ballot box support and the work of others, can permit you and your communities to now step closer to the realization of a magnificent facility along the Peoria riverfront. A September gathering will further assist everyone in understanding, in greater detail, how this significant project can now launch and grow.

    Thank you for your meaningful contributions on behalf of the citizens of Peoria County and all of the greater Peoria area.

    Very truly yours,
    KEVIN W. LYONS
    State’s Attorney

There are a few notable things here:

  • Transfer of Power: First of all, the letter states that in order for “the project [to] commence and operate in compliance with public policy and statutes,” a tax-exempt “museum authority” would need to be organized. This is interesting because there’s already a tax-exempt umbrella organization called the Museum Collaboration Group (MCG). The MCG has, to this point, been calling the shots on everything regarding the proposed museum. But now, it appears that will be coming to an end.

    The new “museum authority,” under the guidance of a newly-established board of directors, will “serve as lead coordinator for the project’s space, programming, and development.” It will be a separate entity from the County, and will also be in charge of museum operations.

    This can be characterized as nothing less than a transfer of power. I suppose it could just be a renaming/reorganization of the MCG, but why that would be necessary (other than providing some additional billing for lawyers) is mysterious to me. It will be most interesting to see who gets a seat on the new museum authority’s board of directors . . . and who doesn’t get a seat.

  • Bidding/letting overseen by County: Museum representatives have long touted their “unprecedented agreement among Caterpillar, the Museum Collaboration Group and the Greater Peoria Area Contractors and Suppliers Association,” promising that “both the Peoria Riverfront Museum and the Caterpillar Experience would be built with 100 percent local union labor.” However, that may be a promise they can’t keep, given that Peoria County Code 6.5-21(9) requires:

    All bids and contracts for the purposes of public works, as defined and provided for by the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (Act), 820 ILCS 130/1 et seq., prohibit the prime contractor and all participating subcontractors from discriminating in employment practices. This act requires that the prevailing wage shall apply to these projects. [820 ILCS 130/2 specifies: “‘Public works’ means all fixed works constructed by any public body, other than work done directly by any public utility company, whether or not done under public supervision or direction, or paid for wholly or in part out of public funds.”]

    Clearly, under this statute, a non-local and non-union shop could very well have the winning bid, and the County would have to award it. This isn’t a new revelation. The question came up during the County’s public forums on the referendum, but the local unions continued to support the referendum anyway, and museum supporters continued to promise that local union labor would definitely be used. It will be interesting to see what bids come in, and who wins.

  • Don’t change the name: It looks they want to avoid this fiasco from happening again. Apparently the name of the Peoria Riverfront Museum is now non-negotiable.
City of Peoria, Peoria County

City and County have golden opportunity to save $80 million+

30 Comments

Both the city and county of Peoria are facing hard times. They’re in a budget shortfall and are looking at increasing revenue and cutting costs (which means services will be cut in some way). Each entity has unwisely committed themselves to large, approximately $40 million capital outlays for non-essential projects: the city for a private Marriott hotel downtown, and the county for a private museum that has received tepid support for multiple years.

Here’s the good news: Both of these projects have missed their contractual deadlines, meaning that the municipalities could easily cancel these agreements and save taxpayers a boatload of money, both in up-front capital costs and on-going operational expenses.

Here’s the bad news: They ain’t gonna do it. Despite a history of just these types of white elephants that have contributed to the current budget mess, you can bet your heavily-taxed bottom dollar that they’re still going to go through with them, even as they cry poverty when it comes to essential city services such as police protection and road maintenance.

It seems no one in the city is able to make the connection between large, non-essential projects, and high taxes. They all hate high taxes, and they all hate service cuts, yet they continue to support large, money-losing, unnecessary projects that swallow their tax money and give them little to nothing in return.

Residents are content to believe the tortured logic of their local politicians. Here are a few of my favorites:

  • “Canceling this capital project won’t do any good because the money to pay the debt can’t be reallocated to operational expenses; it can only be spent on this project.” — That’s true, but irrelevant. From the taxpayer’s perspective, canceling the project will save us money because we won’t have to support it with our tax money. It doesn’t matter that it can’t be reallocated; the municipalities are still going to have to plug their budgets with increased revenue from either taxes or fees. By canceling the agreements, that saves us from an even higher tax increase.
  • “This project will pay for itself.” — Let’s look at the hotel project. The developer can’t find financing for the rest of the project (apparently banks are a little more cautious with their money than the City of Peoria — which is saying something), and the Embassy Suites expansion in East Peoria was recently scrapped because, “The hospitality business as a whole in the country is experiencing extremely hard times.” Yeah, sounds like that will pay for itself, doesn’t it? Obviously the museum will never pay for itself; even ardent supporters don’t claim that.
  • “But the people voted for it.” This applies only to the museum, since the public didn’t know anything about the hotel until two days before the council voted on it, and basically had no voice in the matter. It’s not as if there isn’t precedent for the city council to ignore a vote by the people. They cut funding to the library expansion even after it was approved by a large majority of voters. This project was only narrowly approved, and mostly on the backs of Dunlap and North Peoria voters. It lost handily outside the city. I’ll bet if we had an referendum on increasing garbage fees, that would lose. Should the municipalities thus take that off the table? The fact is that any cuts in service or increases in revenue are going to be unpopular. Leadership requires that unpopular, but fiscally-responsible decisions be made in tough times.

The city and county need to cut the fat. They’re in debt. They can’t afford to provide basic services to their residents. If these developments are really the sure-fire money-makers they claim to be, let private interests finance them, not the taxpayers who are stretched already in this poor economy. Show some leadership.