If you pick up a Journal Star this morning, you’ll see a “First in Print” article about the museum bonds debate:
Delays in issuing bonds, coupled with changes in the public financing of the Peoria Riverfront Museum, could result in $1.6 million to $3.4 million in additional taxpayer costs, according to a memo issued by Peoria County Administrator Patrick Urich on Thursday…. According to Urich’s memo, federally backed Build American Bonds will rebate 35 percent of taxes paid on the bonds issued before New Year’s Day. Urich projects any stall on issuing those bonds until next year could cost $2 million to $2.5 million.
The rebate could be extended at a lesser amount, which would potentially reduce taxpayers’ savings.
“It will cost the taxpayers money if we have to delay,” Urich said Friday.
The type of bonds has been the subject of debate since last week. General obligation bonds, according to Urich, save taxpayers money over a longer period of time because their interest rate is lower. With revenue bonds, the interest rate — and the risk to the bond holder — increases.
Question: Why didn’t Urich tell the voters about all the glories of G. O. bonds before the April 2009 referendum? Just to refresh your memory, here’s what the County said during the weeks leading up to the referendum in town hall meeting after town hall meeting:
If the referendum passes, the County Board has committed to issuing up to $40 million in Revenue Bonds for the museum…. Only money collected from the sales tax increase can be used to pay the Bonds off each year. If the annual payment cannot be met with the sales tax collection, the bond holders bear the burden, not Peoria County or the tax payers…. Why would anyone take the risk to invest in Bonds that may not be paid off annually? As with all investments, the higher the risk, the greater the return. A diverse risk portfolio is a prudent investment strategy, and Revenue Bonds represent a component of that strategy.
Note that the County didn’t say “general obligation bonds” or “Build America Bonds.” They said “Revenue Bonds.” They were very clear and specific. They acknowledged then that Revenue Bonds carry a greater return (that means a higher interest rate) for the bond-holder, but that the trade-off is that the bond-holder carries greater risk. The made it a selling point to the community that “the bond holders bear the burden, not … the taxpayers” if sales tax receipts were insufficient to cover the bond payments.
Now I want to know what has changed since the town hall meetings? Don’t tell me that Build America Bonds are new since then, because they’re not. Build America Bonds were established as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which President Obama signed into law on February 17, 2009. That was before the referendum, and before the town hall meetings which took place in March and April of that year.
If Revenue Bonds are such a bad, expensive funding mechanism, why did the County promote it in March and April 2009? Why did they sing the praises of mitigating risks to the taxpayer then, but now claim there are no risks to mitigate?
One last question. How can Build America Bonds be used on this project in the first place? The rules for these bonds specifically exclude “private activity bonds,” which are defined as bonds where “more than 10 percent of the proceeds of the issue are to be used for any private business use,” including non-profit businesses. The preamble to the County’s bond ordinance makes it clear that the bonds will “finance the acquisition, construction, and installation of facilities and improvements constituting the art, science, and education components of a new Peoria Riverfront Museum, and related facilities, improvements and costs.” The Peoria Riverfront Museum is a private, not-for-profit organization incorporated June 7, 2010, in the State of Illinois. It’s unclear to me how this project qualifies for Build America Bonds.
More Bait and Switch.
Would it not be illegal for the County to say that they were committed to Revenue Bonds on the sales pitch for the referendum and then switch now to the Build America Bonds or GO Bonds? Seems to me that we voted for one thing and they gave us another and that should be illegal. Something has to be illegal in this mess. Its the same as selling a product that you advertise and when the customer gets there you have a different product that you claim will be just as good. Its not what was advertised and I do believe that is illegal. Perhaps the state’s attorney should look into this vote and find out if it is still legal. If not then they can revoke the vote and throw the whole thing out and we start all over. I do believe that this is the way we should go anyway. We should be getting a full truth and transparency from beginning to end. This bait and switch should not hold. You can bet your sweet bippy that if we as citizens said we would pay so and so for such and such to the county and when it came time to pay we switched it to something else they would not let us get away with it, so why do they get away with it? People start screaming about an investigation into this as to whether it is illegal or not to do this. Scream and scream loud to any authority that will listen. That’s what you have a phone, computer, pen and pencil and a voice for, use it.
Nothing that has to do with the museum is illegal… the people voted on it.
charlie: Ha ha … the people voted on a 1/4 cent tax that they thought was going to be use for a museum with an IMAX and built by local union labor and financed with revenue bonds. Little did those voters know that it was just a 1/4 cent tax to be used on any number of horses of different colors that fit within the legal paramenters of the 1/4 cent tax.
the people, the people, the people…
democracy, democracy, democracy…
illiteracy, illiteracy, illiteracy…
Put ’em together and what have you got?
Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle, Tom Tancredo and Glenn Beck… The Tea Party Movement!
charlie: If is sounds to good to be true … it probably is?
The museum is just the catalyst for Peorians disdain,for as long as I can remember the wealthy elite have been creating more wealth by taking our tax dollars to build their mini Chicago. While the money moves further from the core of the city, funding for risky projects done behind closed doors and when necessary given validity by hand picked outside consultants to quell the outrage and dissent of taxpayers continues. Meanwhile the movers and shakers live comfortably in newly defined city limits with good roads and services far from the eroding infrastructure core gutted of resources by their grandiose projects. I don’t need another damned park, a better school for gangbangers, or any more river projects, I need lower taxes and better roads. I will be moving out of the city soon to meet that end as is many others around my neighborhood to escape the taxes.
Nice how the PJStar put the 3 part museum series as a 1st in Print thereby eliminating the comment section.
remarks in the Peoria Journal Star today regarding Citizens efforts to block the bonds. David Yepsen, Director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIU, said “Community activists are not stupid people. They are caring people. For community leaders to try and go around people and try to shove something down their throat in this environment is a sure fire way to have it backfire”.
PEORIA Public Servant *cough* and County Board Chairman Tom O’Neill, on the other hand, had this to say: “They are a very small minority”.
Way to inspire and lead, Tom. When is his term up?
small minority… heh heh. Who is he trying to convince?
charlie: Maybe he was referring to the 410 voters who voted for the promised IMAX?
Have you noticed all the puppets around the County Courthouse the last 2 years???
O.K. We must all give credit where credit is due. The museum officials are now making a big noise about how they are going to go the ‘extra mile’ to get IMAX here. According to Richersen [Richerson?], he has been working with IMAX for years!
That is most interesting. I would have thought that after Rich found out about the nation-wide search being conducted for a new museum CEO/President, he would have gone ahead with his plan to invest in a new ‘business’ project, thereby giving Big Als a run for their money.
Very clever indeed! Put on a good show now and maybe, we can ‘distract’ a few thousand would-be petition signers. Unfortuantely, this may evil ploy might just work…..
NV:
So, how will the PRM reconcile their previous statements that the PRM must stay true to the PRM’s mission and IMAX just might not be the best fit?
Please feel free to pick any Jeopardy category and amount!
If you do well with your first question, just may get another question and it even be the Daily Double.
Mr. O’Neil…you are correct. We are a small minority. The majority toss their trash in our yards and streets: We pick it up. They destroy our neighborhoods through graffiti, crime, drugs, prostitution. We the small minority fight against countless odd, sometimes coming from complacent elected officials, to keep our neighborhoods safe and vibrant. Most people don’t vote, study issues, or care. We read countless reams of paper to ensure our elected officials who most likely don’t read the materials they are voting on, to help ensure positive things happen in our community. The majority doesn’t care. They go about their lives univolved and unconcerned, relying on the small majority to make the world go round. We work long hours for NO pay, no recognition, no seat at the table, and apparantly no voice. Wait we do get one voice, our votes….we are a small minority that get off our behinds and vote on election day….
The biggest problem with most people and politicians is that they read the headlines and go with that. They don’t read the body of whatever it is they are voting on and they don’t ask questions or doubt whatever is fed to them in the headlines. Unfortunately those of us that do are in the minority and this is what frustrates us so much. We see the duplicity and we get angry that the rest don’t even notice and just go blindly along like the sheep following the goat with the bell. Most people believe that the politicians are there doing the best they can do for us and we should let them do their job. Unfortunately they are NOT doing their job. They blame it on over work or whatever and don’t read word for word what is in every bill. Just think of the 700 page and 1300 page bills that Congress passes and you know they did not read every page. They even have readers that supposedly do this for them and are supposed to find any problems and highlight them. But they are only spot readers and thus pork and all sorts of other stuff gets hidden in the bills. The same thing happens on the local level. Thus we have these bait and switch problems and its only after the thing is voted on and passed that we find out that all the facts were not taken into account. Blah. Go sign a petition today and save us millions of dollars out of our pockets and teach our local politicians a lesson. And come November teach a few thousand more lessons. Vote them all out of office and out of their cushy jobs that are costing us our country.
The County and all those “build the block” folks act like they have a mandate. They won by a mere 400 votes- not a landslide. Plus, they got the ball and have dropped it a lot. Time for some change.
Karrie,
The PRM’s mission?!? Ha!
1.) Lakeview was talking Museum & IMAX before they even had a mission statement. Besides, who needs a mission statement…
2.) I am willing to bet that not one person associated with this project has a clue as to what the museum’s ‘mission’ really is.
Question:
What do the seagulls in the Movie “Finding Nemo” and Peoria City Council have in common?
Answer:
Everything they see is “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine…”.
mine
no, mine!
You are all liars.
Our elected officials would never lie to us… so you all are lying.
Ground breaking at 3:00 Will Tim bring the drinks? Koolaid.
Too bad they have such groundbreakings when most of us citizens are at work. I could have brought a protest sign with me.