Those four most glorious words in the English language, “I told you so”, hardly seem adequate these days as the citizens of Manchester discover what a gigantic boondoggle, a pig in a poke if you will, the civic center (referred to as the centerplex, aka “Dracuplex” in a prior incarnation) was and is.
I told you so.
When the snake oil salesmen told the gentle citizens of Manchester not to worry about funding Dracuplex, after all “it’s only room and meal tax money”, I told you that no matter what you call it, it’s still tax money which could have otherwise been used to fund more worthy projects in Manchester or to–here’s a novel idea-lower the property tax rate.
When the film-flam artists assured the good people of Manchester that if the rooms and meals tax money ever went away, they had nothing to worry about it, that an insurance policy was in place to protect us, I raised questions.
What kind of insurance company, knowing that any future governor and legislature, when faced with a revenue crisis, could simply take away the money, would ever write such a policy?
No policy, of course, ever existed, and it’s becoming clearer every day that the unsuspecting citizens of Manchester were sold a bill of goods, that those of us sending up alarm flags at the time were absolutely correct.
In the ultimate of ironies, three of the people most responsible for packaging and accepting the snake oil are now in the fray again.
In 1999, a vote came before the newly elected Board of Mayor and Aldermen to slow down the process and make sure everything was in order. Just sworn in as mayor, Both Sides Bob Baines was petrified that he’d have to take a stand as the tie breaking vote, but it never got that far.
Newly elected Alderman Ted Gases, after consulting with the snake oil salesmen, voted to rush headlong into the abyss. Mayor-elect Ted Gatsas may rue that vote today.
Alderman at Large Mike Lopez, who had run against the civic center because he claimed “It’s not for all the people”, flip-flopped (some say he was bought off by the snake oil salesmen) and voted to go ahead with Dracuplex. For years, Lopez liked to brag that he was the swing vote in favor of the boondoggle. One can only wonder if he’s bragging today.
The third gentleman of interest was City Finance Director Kevin Clougherty who, of course, today is Governor Lynch’s Department of Revenue Administration Commission. While drawing $100,000 a year salary, Clougherty was helping put together the Dracuplex bill of goods (he was concocting the snake oil). While drawing both a city pension and a hefty state salary today, he certainly knows that the rooms and meals monies aren’t coming in as projected.
But let’s be clear here.
Mayor Frank Guinta is wrong in blaming the state.
Governor John Lynch has not taken any rooms and meals money away. The snake oil salesmen were simply wrong (willfully so) when they told us rooms and meals money would increase each and every year. In fact, they built their bond payment schedule on that faulty assumption, starting with about $3 million a year in 2000, up to the current total of about $4.5 million, and due to cap out in the $5.2 million range in a few years.
Cloughtery and his minions who put this plan together knew that rooms and meals money was insufficient to pay for Dracuplex, but they gambled (with taxpayers’ money of course) that the King formula (named after former Senator John King) would kick in, and the money would increase each and every year.
As I (and others) pointed out at the time, that King formula guaranteed additional monies to cities and towns (until it maxed out at 40 percent of rooms and meals monies received) with one important caveat. It was good only as long as the amount the state took in from rooms and meals went up and up each year. That money was down last year, and so far in the first four months of the current fiscal year, we’re $10 million off even lower projections!
In looking at 30 years of bond payments, only irresponsible officials would fail for foresee a time would come when rooms and meals monies would not automatically go up.
Totally irresponsible.
That’s just what Manchester officials, both elected and paid staffers, were back then. In their lust to push Dracuplex upon an unsuspecting public, they simply ignored the laws of economics, that cyclical forces dictate that there’s no such thing as a line straight up.
So what’s the solution to the problem today?
We need only to look to the history to find it. Remember how the snake oil salesmen told us that only “a portion” of the rooms and meals money would be used for the civic center. In fact, Alderman David Wihby used “a portion” in the dishonest wording on the referendum which passed by a narrow margin in 1998.
The snake oil salesmen knew all along that people would think “a portion” could mean anywhere from 10 percent (a small portion) to 50 percent (half) to 90 percent or more (a very large portion). It was never just “a portion” which was to be used for Dracuplex. It was always intended to be the “lion’s share”.
About 90 percent of Manchester’s rooms and meals money has been sucked into Dracuplex (fairness demands I acknowledge the father of that title, Raymond Charles Buckley).
To get through this current crisis, Aldermen need “only” to take all the money.
“Give me all your blood, not just a portion,” the Count is demanding.
After all, what’s another half million when you’re already wasting $4.5 million a year in taxpayer dollars?
That’s the dirty little secret Dracuplex proponents have managed to keep hidden all these years that the average Manchester homeowner is not getting off Scott free with this building. Some people actually think the city makes money with Dracuplex.
Facts are stubborn things. Every million spent adds about 11 cents to the Manchester tax rate. Thus, four and a half million adds about 50 cents to the Manchester tax rate. Multiply that times the average value of a Manchester home ($250,000) and it doesn’t take a math expert to discover that right now the average homeowner, struggling to pay his or her taxes, is paying about $125 a year for a building which he or she most likely hardly if ever uses.
Dracuplex is a great deal for residents of surrounding towns and states. They pay nothing to go to events which cost the average Manchester homeowner $125 and will cost another $10 or $15 when Alderman are forced not simply to gobble up the lion’s share for Dracula but the entire rooms and meals tax money.
I told you so, and I’ve been telling you so for years.
In exchange for having blood (tax money) sucked out of their veins year after year, Manchester gets a few extra pizza sales for downtown restaurants and the right to boast that we’re a world class city.
Of course, we also get a tremendous increase in crime which can be directly attributed to the civic center. That’s another dirty little secret that the snake oil salesmen, yes I dare say the blood suckers, hope Manchesterites never figure out. Not only is their money being stolen for Dracuplex, their safety is endangered.
I told you so.
Those four glorious words sadly provide little satisfaction.
I told you so, but you didn’t want to listen to the truth.
As Jack Nicholson said to Tom Cruise, “You can’t handle the truth.”
Manchester citizens these days are being forced to handle the truth.
Guest post by Rep. Steve Vaillancourt:
I’ve made some changes to the blogroll. I have added a link for Steve Vaillancourt’s postings over at the RedHampshire website. I have re-linked to Granite Grok because Skip Murphy is now formally going it alone. And I have linked to Grant Bosse’s website New Hampshire Watchdog.
Analysis of Tuesday’s election with guest Rep. Steve Vaillancourt. Hard-hitting and no punches pulled. Also, could a third Republican candidate emerge to challenge David Boutin and Terry Pfaff for Mayor-elect Gatsas’ State Senate seat?