Food And Bev To Fund Downtown Projects?
City-county capital panel proposed
Plan would run Coliseum, bankroll downtown projects with food-drink tax
Link (JG)
“A bill introduced in the Indiana House would give control of Memorial Coliseum and the county’s food and beverage tax to a city-led capital improvement board.
But local officials say the bill is just a starting point to create a joint city-county improvement board that would oversee and prioritize large projects downtown, and that many details have to be worked out. ”
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“A capital improvement board would help coordinate development between the city and the county. The board would use non-property tax revenue to pay for projects that would enhance downtown and benefit the entire community, said Ozzie Mitson, business and legislative liaison for Mayor Tom Henry.”
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“But the bill is not meant to be a money grab for the food and beverage tax nor is it intended to pay for Harrison Square, Mitson said. Tax revenue from a planned hotel adjacent to Parkview Field is supposed to pay off a bond that built the new minor-league baseball field. But the hotel developer has yet to secure financing or begin construction.”
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“Currently, the bill calls for Fort Wayne to appoint seven of the nine capital improvement board members, with the county commissioners appointing two representatives. The City Council and Fort Wayne mayor would have to sign off on certain actions. The board would operate the Coliseum, which would become a joint city-county war memorial.
Peters would like to see the Coliseum and Grand Wayne Center continue to operate as they do now, he said, and their respective boards would have to seek approval from the capital improvements board for any future projects.”
Isn’t the food and beverage tax supposed to expire once improvements at the Coliseum are paid off?
If the fund is to be repurposed then it should also go through a reissuing process based on community input.
Expire?
What’s that you say? I don’t quite know what that means…
Can anyone name ANY user fee or temporary tax that has ever gone away in Allen County??? Remember, Coliseum Manager Randy Brown had indicated prior to the approval of the unnecessary new baseball stadium, that the overage (above what was required to pay off the items thast were included) in this Food & Bev fund was sufficent to pay the maximum cost estimate on upgrading Memorial Stadium to standards desired by the owners of the team.
Also, the entire original cost of Memorial Stadium WAS paid in full in July of 2007.
I think that this proposal has been offered because the Allen County Memorial Coliseum Board has done so very well fiscally, and our downtown improvement group (including the Grand Wayne Center Board) have fiscally failed so miserably, that the city is coveting the fruits gathered for use in paying for their projects (including the non-moving non-public funded Harrison Square buildings.