I am writing this to give another thought or perspective to recent reports distributed by the City Finance Department and further embellished and distorted by our local media. While I find many facts to be correct in the original report, they are presented in such a negative slant and with so many glossed over and foot noted side posts that are particularly relevant to the report, yet missed or poorly represented in both the written report as well as the slide presentation given the night of the meeting, that an entirely different perception was forced onto the audience and later the general public thru the neglect of the news media. While I see a dozen or so examples of this creative bookkeeping and reporting I feel one simply must be pointed out to the public.
On page A-9 of the hand out report a matrix is presented with several columns. One of which is labeled “Branson Landing Debt Service 2004A and 2005A”. In simple terms, that is the debt incurred for building what you and I call Branson Landing, or at least a portion of the construction and infrastructure. Another column is labeled “Branson Landing Debt Service 2003A” When in reality this report is the only place I know of where one might see that label.
The 2003A MDFB Bonds that attribute nearly $3,340,394.00 in debt service for 2010 are not appropriately labeled. If read carefully and sometimes a little light reading between the lines, you might see that those bonds while labeled “Branson Landing Debt Service 2003A” are actually several older debts incurred and re-financed by the city in 2003. The debt was created by rolling the Branson Meadows debt ( which had already been rolled into a city wide TIF debt), the land acquisition debt for the lakefront land and the debt from at least two other city buildings and some street improvement debts. Now it is true that the land acquisition debt for the land the Branson Landing project sits on is included in that 2003A debt, the re-payment of that debt is the Cities responsibility and this fair minded person feels the $450,000 per year land lease payments for 100 years for a total of $45 million dollars is the way that debt should be shown on the report. The payments for that debt via the bonds will end some time in 2031, while the land lease payments will continue until 2105. The land acquisition debt was approximately $ 37,500,000 and it was incurred prior to the Branson Landing TIF and even prior to the concept of Branson Landing being drawn or named. In fact that debt was incurred prior to the developer even being involved with the potential project. Early concepts were a convention center built along the waterfront with little or NO income potential other than the convention center itself. No matter what was built on that property, the debt would still be there and would still be payable. The more appropriate and more honest way to have reported this revenue and expense stream as it pertains to the Branson Landing is that in 2010 the Branson Landing sales tax income forecasted and captured to reduce the debt via the TIF will have an excess of approximately $892,000 that will be able to be used to reduce other debts and reduce the amount of funds that would otherwise need to be taken from the city general fund and other important funds.
As a general perception we looked at the same matrix and after correcting the misinformation regarding the 2003A refinancing debt labeling, we tried extending the matrix further to demonstrate the projected cash flow throughout the term of the lease as compared to only the term of the bonds. It seems that IF one can assume the estimated TIF revenues will remain in a similar pattern as depicted on the City Matrix thru the term of the lease and in effect the anticipated economic life of the project, the additional income amounts to approximately $79,000,000. That 79 Million is over and above all debt service. In fact if you add the excess funds anticipated to be collected during the life of the bonds that are being used to pay other debts, the total funds anticipated to be collected over and above the actual TIF bond debts service for the term of the lease would be in excess of $127,000,000. Subtract the $37,500,000 initial land cost that was paid for from general fund and transportation fund and the City nets about 90 million dollars or roughly $900,000 per year after debt service.
Now the above paragraph is NOT a real picture of this investment. It is an example of how the same data can be used without using any untruths to paint an entirely different picture.
Enough is enough, most of us get it. The people on City Council NOW do not like what the people on City Council before did. They don’t seem to like the Branson Landing financing program (ie. TIF). They don’t seem to like much of anything done by anyone before them. But here are some much more important questions in my mind.
What exactly have they done now that they are in power to advance this wonderful City?
What great new economic development projects have they fostered and brought to the City?
What new road with new exciting tourist attraction has been developed in the past 3+ years?
What great enlightening and changes have come about due to the current administration?
Or how about the attitude change and the transparency we all heard about:
Our experience lately is that nearly any attempt to develop, enhance, add, or change any business or property in the City is met with bureaucratic nightmares of a magnitude many times that of just a few short years ago. Back in those days we economic development minded people all complained about how difficult it was to get something done. Now we look back on those “good ole days” as a walk in the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment