Legacy and OPM

At a time when Congress, President Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed, and President-Elect Barack Obama are busy either spending $700 BILLION or asking for even more, Comrade, uh... Councilor Benton and Councilor O'Malley have the temerity to ask for another $400 MILLION to pay for an undersized arena with no anchor tenant at a time when we just approved a RailRoader tax and are generally afraid that we may not have a job come Monday.

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Ok... that's probably the worst run-on sentence we've ever seen. Even we admit it's somewhat ridiculous. But, we're not asking for $400 MILLION for an un-needed arena when almost everyone else is worried about the next dollar they may, or may not be able to earn - that's truly ridiculous.
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Somehow, somewhere, the council came up with almost $1 MILLION to for a "feasability study" that looked at whether or not (or rather whether without the not) we all should cough up $400 MILLION for a new downtown arena.

Dale Lockett, president of the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city risks losing convention business without the project. The city already provides a roughly $1 million subsidy to the Albuquerque Convention Center, a consequence of not having enough hotel rooms for big conventions, he said.

"Cities after cities are lining up to do these projects," Lockett said. "It's our competition. ... We are in serious jeopardy of being completely out of the convention industry."

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

So, we're dumping $1 MILLION a year into the Convention Center, all because we don't have enough hotel rooms. Hmmm... Have you ever noticed that we have a somewhat large event every freaken year that's ten times the size of any convention we've ever seen? It's called the Balloon Fiesta and we seem to be able to handle that "convention."

There was a time when finding a room anywhere from Belen to Santa Fe during the Balloon Fiesta was near to impossible. However, the market provided and now we have all sorts of hotels all over town and a fair number of entrepreneurs who put their own homes up for rental - and it didn't cost taxpayers a dime. It's hard to believe that we don't have enough hotel rooms for a any convention that might be held in The Convention Center.

This sounds an awful lot like the AIG bailout... "we're in danger of being out of the convention business." Lockett's solution is for the city to go into the hospitality business. In other words we need to have another money pit to go with the Balloon Fiesta Museum, The Convention Center, and the Bio Park - all because we're "in danger of being out of the convention business." The government is too big to fail.

Benton also said a mail-in ballot might be the way to quickly get the issue before voters. Waiting until October might not work because the group that owns the First Baptist Church — part of the planned site — could sell it before then to someone else.

"The sooner we deal with this, the better," O'Malley said.

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

O'Malley and Benton's idea to have a "special" or "mail-in" election is nothing but a ploy to reduce turn out and tilt the odds in favor of a new city funded arena/hotel complex. They understand that a municipal election that includes the Mayor historically generates a larger turnout - a turnout that has repeatedly said "no" to raises and taxes not related to public safety.

October might not work because the group that owns the First Baptist Church — part of the planned site — could sell it before then to someone else.

"The sooner we deal with this, the better," O'Malley said.

-ABQ Journal (Subscription)

At this point we're really stunned that anyone in government would ask for more money and higher taxes in order to build an arena and hotel complex that the city doesn't need. If the folks over at First Baptist Church decide to sell their property to another buyer before the general election they're probably doing "the Lord's work."

The arena isn't something we asked for and it's not something that we need. Spending other people's money on a project that can't possibly pay for itself is easy - particularly when you've just spent $700,000 on a marketing... feasability study that shockingly tells you to go ahead with the project despite an economic downturn.

What's hard is for elected officials to resist the temptation of paying for huge projects with our money in order to have some kind of legacy - some proof that they held office. Of course their legacy is built with Other People's Money.

Our first post-election Eye Poll concerns the Legacy that O'Malley and Comrade Benton seek to build. Arena yes or no... Don't forget to vote!