The city council LOVES to spend our tax dollars and just is itching to do so. But not on critical items like, oh say, police, roads, infrastructure, city services....
No, they are giving Gary Matthews a "second" chance at building a Marriott in conjunction with the Pere.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45039205/ns/local_news-peoria_il/#.TqgBhXKOfZ0
A second chance? This guy has missed every deadline set for him by the council regarding this project. If we missed this many at our jobs, we'd get fired. And yet again, the project has again been downsized from what was originally presented to Peoria.
Maybe we can all hide at this hotel from all the thuggery that is going on in Peoria of late. If we are all in one spot, maybe the two remaining police officers will be able to protect us better. I hope all the shooting, hold up, stabbing and beating victims of late will find solace in knowing that the city council is more concerned about lining the pockets of developers, etc. than they are spending money driving out/locking up thugs and protecting the citizens of Peoria.
I think the mayor and every city council person who voted yes for this should have to sign a personal guarantee letter for this project. If they can't see that Matthews couldn't get his portion of the financing for 2 years it should tell them that the "money people" in this world don't think this is a good idea. But I'm sure the council knows better and would have no issue putting up their homes, cars and bank accounts as collateral. I mean the Civic Center, Gateway Building, Firefly, Globe, Mid town Plaza, O'Brien Field and the Rec Plex are such financial windfalls for Peoria, you'd think our tax rate would be zero. We all know who made money on these deals and it wasn't the Peoria taxpayer.
3 comments:
Not to mention a $30,000 loan to a hot dog place and a $80,000 loan to a pizza place. At least the pizza place is open 7 days a week and year around.
AMEN!!!
Eye in the Sky
In today's Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504577001780712273626.html entitled How Harrisburg Borrowed Itself Into Bankruptcy. From the article: "The Harrisburg case raises fundamental questions about the way cities and states increasingly use debt to finance speculative development that private investors or lenders won't touch. From minor league stadiums to arenas, museums, downtown redevelopment and waste plants with unproven technologies, billions have been spent on schemes of questionable value. Some projects are backed by unrealistic economic projections, which leave taxpayers on the hook for bond payments or operating subsidies."
If THAT doesn't sound like Peoria, I don't know what does!
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