Ya aint gettin da full truth

In a news report by Scott Johnston from 630 CHED, titled 'City portion of arena deal "covered" says city manager', it is my belief we are hearing fudged information. In court, the proverbial oath is to tell the truth, the whole truth,  and nothing but the truth.

We are not getting that full truth, which it is my belief that makes the city manager a liar.

Just along the same lines as the cities CFO said at council, with a wink wink nudge nudge, that taxes are not going up because of the arena. She too, was telling a partial truth. And the only reason why she could get away with the response was because the question was related to "this year". And of course, since the city really didn't spend any money, it's kind of hard to raise taxes on something not yet disbursed. DUH. But hey, the city ran around screaming and cheering that taxes were not going up. .. And you fell for it. Right?

Anyway, getting back to dear Simon, who was quoted as saying :

“If you take the arena project, the city office tower, and you take Stantec, there’s a billion and a half dollars worth of investment into the core and that will be sufficient to pay off clearly any of the municipal portion on the arena”

 What Simon fails to add is this. All of the tax revenues from the CRL zone, based on the existing relocation of other businesses, means the areas vacated are no longer going to pay those property taxes. Empty buildings do not generate tax revenue. So those 10's or 100's of millions of  tax dollars are lost. When you add into this the fact that all new property taxes raised within the CRL zone will NOT be going into paying for the required services the city and it's residents needs (fire, police, infrastructure etc) then this means we are in reality, out DOUBLE the amount of money required to pay for those same fire, police, infrastructure type items.

So, with a loss of double the hundreds of millions, I'm thrilled to know that Edmonton is becoming much more effective in dealing with crime and stuff, and we can start to get rid of the extra cops and fire fighters and paving equipment contracts that will no longer be needed.

Of course, the above statement is an oxymoron, because taxes WILL go up to recover the loss of the revenue stolen from city taxes, in order to support a billionaire. To think otherwise... well, I'm sorry. I'll call a spade a spade. You are just stupid.

By the way, did you note the part where he included the "city office tower"? Isn't that the one where city employees are all supposed to be going to? I seem to recall something about the city not paying property taxes on places it has. Maybe I'm wrong... *coughs

Have you also forgotten about that portion of the education tax which is part of property taxes, being stolen from our children? Meh... the kids certainly don't need that money, because you know, the teachers love teaching so much they will do it for free. Course, with that lost revenue for schools, you have to know your fees to send kids to school will go up. Buses, books, art supplies. But you don't care, right? After all, we have to support a poor billionaire. And even our Mayor has expressed delight in taking that portion of the taxes away from the children.

Yet another farce presented to the people was the item of Katz getting parking revenues. One would think that would mean he would be able to keep all of the parking money from the arena parking at the building. What you were not told is that the parking money is not JUST limited to "his" palace. What you were also NOT told was that the city is paying ... ops.. I mean you are paying ... to replace all of those parking meters in the area, with new fancy electronic programmable meters, so they can RAISE the price of parking.. ops, I mean so they can give Katz a lot more money. And of course, the spin provided for that aspect was that "we have to be competitive".

So much more is yet to come. The question is, since we all know that ignorance is bliss...

Just how blissful are you? Sheep being what they are and all.

Arena Prediction

Next to the City Center Airport debate, the proposed downtown arena (also known as the Katz Personal Palace and Money Generating Machine) for Edmonton is a contentious issue.

When you look at the bottom line, this project will exceed $700 million when you include infrastructure and other costs. Let's forget about the latest Katz Group demands, and recognize the current deal that Council has in front of them will use pretty much 100% of taxpayer dollars.

Some people have crunched the numbers, and have suggested that Katz will rake in at least $20 million per year at a minimum, of profits over a 35 year "deal". So taxpayers put out 700 million dollars to a private company that does not put a cent in, and the same private company will end up collecting 700 million dollars in profits for their "troubles".

Edmonton City Council has clearly not been listening to the people of this city. And I suspect that come election time in 2013, many of them will be out of jobs because of it. But by then, the damage will have been done, a contract will have been signed, and any attempts to get out of it will be subject to a lawsuit by Katz. The same man that professes to love Edmonton, will not blink an eye in suing the people.

So what are our choices? There are no laws in place that allow us to recall council members and toss them out of office. The citizens can lead a drive for a plebiscite of some form, which must be started when Council votes on a bylaw to steal taxpayer money from the poor and give it to the rich. However experience has taught us that doing one of these things is expensive and very time consuming.

This borrowing bylaw will happen when the weather is the pits, making it next to impossible to "legally" tell Mayor Mandel and the other criminals on City Council where to stick it. Yes, I said criminals because, it is my belief that any elected official that allows their administration to create a deal that is so clearly biased, has not done their job. In any other industry or business, people like the City Manager and the CFO would be run out of town for even thinking they have done an appropriate job in the diligent management of taxpayers money.

But lets say, enough people get together and a plebiscite drive starts to turn out into a success. At this point, City Council does have the legal option of saying "Okay, we will call for our own plebiscite", under the guise of "look, we are listening to the people"... However according the the MGA (Municipal Government Act) a plebiscite called by council will supersede one called by citizens. And in the one called for by Council, the results, no matter how they turn out, can legally be rejected. Meaning they do NOT have to listen to what those results are.

So no matter how you cut it, this deal will go through. Katz will have his palace of money making gold, pay nothing for it, and taxpayers will get shafted. And it is my belief, this is nothing short of criminal theft of taxpayer dollars.

I think it's pretty clear that Mandel won't be running again. I've heard from many people that have suggested that he is grooming Iveson to take over his lead... and if so, one should perhaps question if the same groomed leadership is what you as a citizen would want. I certainly do not what that "type" of leadership ever again.

Where are the RCMP when you need them to do an investigation. Maybe even more so, do we even trust the RCMP anymore. In the mean time, the Alberta Government sits by and watches... waiting for an opportunity to stand in and add more taxpayer money for Katz to steal.

These are my beliefs... you are entitled to yours as well.

If you are looking for an example of what I think is a reasonably closer responsible deal, see my blog post prior to this one.

And more Marketing

Recently the City of Edmonton announced how PCL was contracted to do "stuff" for the proposed downtown arena, and with the Provincial election under way the blog posts are appearing all over.

Recently, Mack Male posted some interesting items under a title of More power and money to cities in Alberta? I don’t believe you! In his blog, he quotes the various parties positions on Provincial help for cities, and then suggests that what those parties said doesn't hold some form of "truth factor" with respect to the arena.

With all due respect to Mack... the parties stances on not supporting taxpayers funds going into a billionaires pocket, is 100% smack on.

Now... if Katz was actually putting the majority of the funds into this project from his own pocket, and wanted some assistance to make up the rest, then there would be a valid cause for discussion. However as time has gone on, the citizens of Edmonton have come to the conclusion that we have been hood winked by the process, what we were told Katz was going to be putting in has been whittled down to a few bucks here and there on an annual basis rather than up front, and the City will have to borrow the money for him to "pay back" instead. And then there is the issue of the City going into an "advertisement" agreement which for the most part almost totally negates any pennies Katz will be putting in.

In the mean time, the City is forging ahead with plans to attempt to use the magical abstraction of taking money from one hand and putting it into another hand and calling it "new" money. Or, as some say... its the "CRL" side. The mystical and magical projection of future taxes INCLUDING the educational portion of taxes, being used to pay for this.

And of course, no one in this supposed CRL zone will ever have the need for City services, like the rest of us pay taxes for. No need to cost out things like fire or police responses. There will be no fires or crime that will consume tax dollars, so we can divert all those new and 'adjusted' taxes into the arena. And we most certainty have all of the money in the world up our yin-yang for the rest of the citizens of the Province to add more money from the robbed educational component. Remember, if the City steals a million dollars of education tax per year (or whatever it works out to) the Province will just raise the rate that all taxpayers pay, to cover the loss.

Let us also not be blindsided by the City saying this will "only" be $450 million dollars. They promise there will be no cost over runs... (yeah, right... just like they promised there would be no dollars spent until all of the funding is in place... and I am guessing that at least $100 million has already been spent).

Since when has a politician ever told the truth? Clearly the City of Edmonton has not. And the provincial parties can see the writing on the wall. After all, they are politicians too and can smell the bullshit here because they are all too familiar with the smell.

So for those who take a political stance and say "no" to the arena funding... kudos. There is no valid reason in the world for taxpayers to be literally funding 100% of this arena project, and not get one penny of revenue from it. Remember folks, Katz can walk away from this at ANY time, by simply selling the team.

Like sports owners never sell teams, right?