Tag Archives: sales tax referendum

2009 Campaign, Museum Block

Peoria Chronicle Endorsements — Public Facility Sales Tax: No

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Much has been written on this, both in my blog and at the NoMuseumTax.org website, so I won’t go through all the standard arguments again. What I would like to do briefly is respond to a few of the more common rebuttals I’ve heard.

  • First, there is the rebuttal that absent this museum plan, the block will remain vacant for years to come. Museum supporters base this belief on their assertion that the block has been vacant for fifteen years, and if anyone had wanted to develop it, it would have happened by now. The premise is completely false. Sears closed their downtown store and moved to Northwoods Mall in September of 1998, which is about ten and a half years ago, not fifteen. Plans to put a history museum on the block surfaced the same year, before Sears even closed its doors. Furthermore, the City of Peoria bought the Sears block in July of 1998 — also before the store closed. The city, on the advice of the Riverfront Business District Commission, started the process of putting out requests for proposals on the site in March 2000 to see what private developers would be interested. In July 2000, they aborted that process, deciding instead to wait until a “comprehensive study of the downtown” could be completed. That study came in 2002 and is called the Heart of Peoria Plan. Yet, after the plan was completed, the City didn’t put out RFPs based on that plan, they just gave the bock to the museum in September 2003 when they signed the first redevelopment agreement. The block has been locked up ever since. This block, which has been described as the “crown jewel” of Peoria and the most valuable piece of property in downstate Illinois, will most assuredly be redeveloped if the museum proposal doesn’t pan out. Given the state of the economy, it will likely take a little time for mixed-use development to happen, but I’ll bet a lot more is built in six years of private development than has been built in the last six years while we’ve been waiting for the museum to get its act together.

  • Second, there’s the rebuttal that any development on the block will require a public subsidy, so why not just give it to the museum? I won’t dispute that some public subsidy will be needed, if for no other reason than that the council has set a precedent of handing out subsidies like candy. The question is how much of a subsidy, and how much of a return for that subsidy can we expect? This sales tax is only the latest in a long list of subsidies the museum has already been given. They’re being leased the land — which is estimated to cost several million dollars alone — for $1 a year. They’re in a tax increment financing (TIF) district. They’ve been promised no small amount of public infrastructure improvements around the block, most notably on Water Street. And the City of Peoria is going to own, operate, and maintain the underground parking deck once it’s built. Then there are all the state and federal funds the museum has received. Yet on top of all that, they want $40 million more in public subsidy from the county. And this is for a private, not-for-profit business that will charge admission and pay no property or sales taxes itself. If the city were to give the land to a private developer along with the existing TIF incentive, I bet that would be enough subsidy without having to tap the taxpayers for $40 million extra in bonds. Plus, we’d increase the property tax base and bring in sales tax to boot.

  • Third, there’s the Civic Center rebuttal. It sounds like this: “Can you imagine Peoria without the Civic Center? It was built in hard economic times, too, and now look at what an asset it is to the community! This is our generation’s ‘Civic Center’ moment.” The problem with this argument is that our generation has already had its “Civic Center moment.” Our generation just borrowed and spent $55 million to expand the Civic Center, plus we’re spending another $40 million to put an attached hotel next to it. That’s a total of $95 million in public investment. This was also supposed to stimulate our economy and make us a tourist destination. How quickly that’s been forgotten. How many “Civic Center moments” can we afford? Think about it. At the same time supporters want us to raise taxes for an “education and entertainment” complex, the city is talking about laying off police officers and cutting road maintenance in half, and our local school district is closing schools right and left. What’s wrong with this picture?

Finally, the idea that a “yes” vote will somehow prove that Peoria “believes in itself” is nothing more than touchy-feely marketing spin. Peoria believes in itself. Look around. Peoria has all kinds of educational and entertainment opportunities: the recently expanded Glen Oak Zoo, Wildlife Prairie State Park, the Peoria Civic Center, multiple movie theaters, Cornstock Theater, Peoria Players, Peoria Chiefs baseball, Bradley basketball, Rivermen hockey, Peoria Pirates indoor football, and yes, even Lakeview Museum. Many of these have been done with large amounts of public investment. To chastise taxpayers as uninterested in quality of life issues if they reject this latest tax after all the money they’ve poured into these projects is an insult to Peoria’s residents.

Don’t be fooled. A “no” vote on the sales tax is an honorable vote. It reflects not only fiscal responsibility, but also faith in the community — faith that we can do better, that we can be patient in achieving our vision, and that we can work together to build a better block for all Peorians.

Caterpillar, Museum Block

Cat encourages remaining employees to vote for museum tax

27 Comments

A source who wishes to remain anonymous forwarded me this e-mail that was sent to Caterpillar employees today:

Dear Team Caterpillar:

In 2002 my predecessor, Chairman Glen Barton, committed Caterpillar’s support to a new regional museum. Since then the company has supported this project to revitalize the downtown Peoria community. Our involvement has grown from a relatively simple presence in the new museum to the current concept — a separate facility housing a corporate visitor center, called the Caterpillar Experience.

This new riverfront development along with the proposed renovation of the Hotel Pere Marquette and the recent expansion of the Civic Center, should transform the landscape of downtown Peoria. The Museum project specifically will offer tremendous educational and entertainment opportunities to residents throughout Central Illinois.

Peoria County voters now have an opportunity to support the Museum project through a countywide referendum on April 7. The proposed 0.25 percent county sales tax increase will provide critical public funding for the new Museum. As federal and state funding sources have disappeared, this local funding initiative has become the last opportunity for moving this project forward.

If you live in Peoria County and can vote on this referendum, I encourage your support. Without a doubt, this project will make Peoria a better place to live, will make downtown Peoria a better place to work and will help us attract the best and brightest employees for the future.

Please remember to vote on April 7. You’ll find the issue as the last item on the ballot which references “public facilities sales tax.” If you’re going to be out of town on election day, you can take advantage of early voting between March 16 and April 2.

Thank you for your support. This is an important opportunity for the members of Team Caterpillar to make a difference in Peoria.

Sincerely,
James W. Owens

There’s nothing wrong with Cat encouraging its employees to vote a certain way, of course. I post this merely to show what Cat’s thinking is on the issue. Several things stood out to me:

  • “…educational and entertainment opportunities…” — Meanwhile, District 150 can’t make payroll, and county school districts need to make facilities improvements. And as for entertainment — it’s not enough that we just spent $95 million expanding the Civic Center and adding an attached hotel? How many more millions can the public afford for “entertainment”?

  • “As federal and state funding sources have disappeared…” — I thought we just heard yesterday at the Build the Block news conference that these funding sources have reappeared. Aren’t they hoping to get $14 million in stimulus money now? Didn’t Illinois Secretary of Transportation Hannig say that the state is “committed to this project” financially? Sounds like the tap has been turned back on.

  • “…this local funding initiative has become the last opportunity for moving this project forward…” — I thought the New Market Tax Credits were the last opportunity to move the project forward. And before that, I thought extending the redevelopment agreement was the last opportunity to move the project forward. How many “last opportunities” are there?

  • “…this project will make Peoria a better place to live…” — For whom? How many Cat executives live in Peoria? How many live across the river? How many live on the south side?

  • “…will make downtown Peoria a better place to work and will help us attract the best and brightest employees for the future.” — And where are those future employees going to live? The east bluff? South Peoria? Averyville? If not, why not? I thought this museum was supposed to make Peoria a better place to live. Why wouldn’t they want to live here? What’s wrong with these parts of town that a new museum doesn’t cure?

  • “This is an important opportunity for the members of Team Caterpillar to make a difference in Peoria.” — The members of Team Caterpillar who are left after all the layoffs, that is.
Museum Block, Peoria County

Museum looks to meet private shortfall with public funds

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The latest town hall meeting on the county sales tax referendum took place tonight at Dunlap Valley Middle School. The presenters were Brad McMillan for the museum, Erik Bush for the county, and Karrie Alms for Citizens for Responsible Spending. I was pleased to see that tonight’s meeting was a balanced presentation, pro and con. Kudos to the county for now allowing both sides a seat at the table.

While most of the evening was filled with no new information, there was one significant development. As you may know, the museum has set separate goals for private and public funding. The sales tax is supposed to plug the gap in public funding, but there is still an $11 million shortfall on the private funding side. At just about every meeting, the question is raised as to how the museum group plans to close that $11 million private funding gap. And the answer has always been that they’ve gotten a commitment from the CEO Roundtable to raise $8 million of it, and that they’re confident that people will come out of the wings to support the project once they know the public funding is in place. Sounds far-fetched to me for various reasons, but I don’t want to digress on that right now.

What we learned tonight is that they are also trying to plug that gap with (perhaps not surprisingly) more public money from state and federal sources. Mr. McMillan said the group is working with state senators Risinger and Koehler, as well as Congressman Schock to get grants, stimulus money, and any other funds the government might have lying around that could go toward the museum.

This indicates a bit of a shift in strategy on the museum’s part. It would appear that they are now changing their public/private funding goals. Why might they be doing this? Could it be because they don’t really believe they can make up that $11 million shortfall with private donations after all?

(P.S. On a side note, do you remember a comment on another post from “kcdad” where he said today’s schools are set up to teach children consumerism? Well, after seeing the brand new, state-of-the-art Dunlap Valley Middle School tonight, I’m inclined to agree with him. The building looks like a shopping mall inside and out, not an educational institution. Architecture and environment teach you something about what a community values; clearly the value here is consumerism.)

Museum Block, Peoria County

PI reports on latest county advocacy meeting

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I couldn’t make it to the latest museum advocacy meeting held at Bradley University Monday night. But PeoriaIllinoisan was there and turned in his own report. He doesn’t know it, but he’s a mighty fine citizen journalist. I found this particularly interesting:

One of the speakers pointed out that several fliers and information was available at the back of the room, which they were, and just to show that he was fair, he said a flier of a dissenting opinion was also there… it was… on another table was a small stack, blocked and shielded from view by a very enthusiastic Museum supporter who made snide remarks about Merle Widmer, Gary Sandberg, and anyone else who dared to question the “facts”.

Classy.

UPDATE: I’ve been told by another source that it was county board member Andrew Rand — not Richerson — who made the comment about the flyers. PI has corrected his report and that correction is reflected in the quote above.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Advocacy by any other name is still advocacy

49 Comments

The first town hall meeting on the Peoria County public facility sales tax referendum took place Thursday night at Kickapoo Creek Winery. The event was sponsored by County Board members Carol Trumpe and Bob Baietto. Presenters were Jim Richerson for the museum group and Scott Sorrell for the County. Questions had to be written out ahead of time, so attendees weren’t allowed to verbalize the questions themselves. Everything was highly controlled.

The meeting is billed as informational, not advocating for or against passage of the referendum. But if Thursday’s meeting wasn’t advocacy, I sure don’t know what is. Richerson gave his pitch piece for the block and used phrases like “when [not “if”] the referendum passes.” Questions were answered by board members, Sorrell, Richerson, and Mark Johnson from Caterpillar. Obviously, Richerson and Johnson are for the referendum. No one who is against the referendum was allowed a place at the table. The county did not present any risks, cons, or critical information. Everything shared at the meeting was positive toward the referendum. Yet we’re expected to believe we’re hearing an unbiased and fact-based presentation.

In the back of the room was a table full of materials from the the pro-referendum advocacy group Friends of Build the Block, including a flyer that said flat-out, “Vote Yes.” No advance effort was made to contact the anti-referendum advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Spending and offer them a table for their materials.

So, we have an event at which only pro-referendum presenters are invited, only pro-referendum materials are provided, and passage of the referendum is only shown in a favorable light. There’s an old saying: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” So if the event looks like advocacy and sounds like advocacy, guess what?

Museum Block, Peoria County

Sales tax referendum for museum will be on April ballot

25 Comments

From Peoria County’s website:

Peoria County Board Approves Sales Tax Referendum for April Ballot

At a special board meeting earlier this evening [Jan. 27], the Peoria County Board approved the following resolution to place a referendum on the Consolidated General Election ballot this April that asks voters to raise the county’s sales tax rate by 1/4 of 1% to help fund public facilities. If approved by the electorate, the sales tax increase would be applied on retail sales of non-titled goods and would be the equivalent of twenty-five cents (25¢) for every $100 purchased. The referendum includes a sunset clause setting the tax increase to expire twenty (20) years from its effective date of January 1, 2010. Money collected from the increase would be used to help fund construction of the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

Peoria County’s role through the April 7, 2009 consolidated election is not to advocate for or against the passing of this referendum, but rather to educate the public on the sales tax increase and its intent. County Board Members Andrew Rand and James Dillon will host an informational town hall meeting on March 9 at 6:30 p.m. at Bradley University’s Baker Hall Auditorium, Room B51. More information regarding this town hall meeting will be forthcoming.

The resolution is available for download here: www.peoriacounty.org/county/files/get/Jan09PRMrefe.pdf

For more information regarding the referendum, please call County Administration at (309) 672-6056.

I’m especially intrigued by the statement, “Peoria County’s role through the April 7, 2009 consolidated election is not to advocate for or against the passing of this referendum….” Does that mean that they will publish the pros and cons of the sales tax, the way the State published the pros and cons of holding a constitutional convention? Or does it mean that they will give multiple opportunities for the museum to sell the supposed benefits of the tax increase (without any counterargument offered) under the pretense of “providing information”?

Oh wait, I think I have the answer to that question:

Town Hall Meeting re Riverfront Museum Financing

Peoria County Board Members Andrew Rand (District 4) and James Dillon (District 7) will be hosting an informational town hall meeting regarding the Peoria Riverfront Museum and a county-wide temporary sales tax referendum at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 9 at Bradley University, Baker Hall Auditorium B51.

Jim Richerson, CEO of Lakeview Museum, will explain the Museum Project, and Erik Bush, CFO, County of Peoria, will explain public and private financing efforts. Scott Sorrel, Assistant to the County Administrator, will present as well. The intent of this town hall meeting is two-fold: to raise awareness of the Museum Project and to educate the public about a county-wide sales tax referendum that will appear on the Consolidated General Election ballot this April. All interested persons are encouraged to attend.

Nope, no advocacy there.

Museum Block, Peoria County, State Legislation

Museum tax strategy revealed in latest telephone poll

73 Comments

Regular commentator Mahkno has left a most interesting comment on the Peoria Pundit website that I’m going to shamelessly steal and quote in its entirety here:

Museum folks ran a very push orientated poll this eve. Had a good 30 second to full minute intro about how great the education benefits would be, how much revenue it would bring in (14 million), how many jobs it would create ([250] union jobs), its 86% paid for so far, and how low a burden it would be (25 cents per…).

Would you support a sales tax increase? Mmm no.

What if it were tied to other public service like firefighting and police? Mmmm… no.

What if the tax were only temporary, to expire at some point? LOL… Civic Center? … MMmmm No…

Done.

The statute under which this tax referendum falls is called the “Special County Retailers’ Occupation Tax For Public Safety, Public Facilities, or Transportation” (Sec. 5-1006.5). This statute has been around a while, actually, except that it used to be just for public safety and transportation. The legislature recently amended it to include “public facilities” for the expressed purpose of helping the museum project go forward.

Since the tax can cover not only facilities, but safety and transportation too, it looks like the county and museum officials are contemplating a common political strategy. It happens all the time in Congress. For instance, say you have a pork-barrel project that doesn’t stand a chance of getting through Congress on a pure up-or-down vote. What do you do? You put it in, say, a veterans hospital bill as an earmark. That way, in order to vote against the pork, representatives have to vote against veterans. No one wants to vote against veterans (and certainly no one wants to be on record as voting against veterans), so the bill passes, pork and all. Voila!

The county is at least contemplating the same strategy here. They have an unpopular sales tax referendum for an unpopular museum project, so how do they get residents to vote for it? Of course! Pair it with something people will be reluctant to vote against — like public safety! Who wants to vote against firefighters or police officers? Then they can market it as a public-safety tax instead of what it really is — a museum-funding tax.

Expect the museum-backers to pull out all the stops in this campaign. They’ve already started behind-the-scenes efforts to silence their critics (like me) through intimidation tactics. I suppose I should be flattered that my little blog is perceived as such a big threat.