Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

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One Of Best Comments Ever: Transparency Is The Best Solution

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 I wish the City would just report the costs and their current financial projections. There are polar opposites when it comes to this project. 


  • On one side there are the baseball fans, both in the City and from the Towns who think the ballpark is the greatest thing regardless of the cost. 
  • Then there are the Augustusites who call anyone who asks a question or expresses a contrary opinion as being the old Worcester negative crowd.
  • On the other side you have people who probably care less about baseball but have concerns about their taxes going up or their street not being paved because money has been diverted to the ballpark (count me in this group). 
  • You also have a group questioning why the WooSox are not paying taxes. 
  • Then you have a group that philosophically did not agree that using public funds to enrich a private company. 


Neither side can have a grown up discussion on the matter. 

The City could easily end these arguments by reporting their financials but it is in their best interest to sit back and let the factions criticizes other comments. 

I will agree with a comment that has been previously made that if the financials were good the City would have reported them by now. I would also like to recount that in one of the articles on the bond ratings the agency showed how they were going to cover the deficits. 

Transparency is the best solution.




Comments

Anonymous said…
Add replacing Burncoat to the list.
June 4, 2022 at 4:56 PM
Anonymous said…
The comment is spot on and describes a larger issue we as a nation are facing.
June 5, 2022 at 3:54 AM
Anonymous said…
Also, since part of the “plan” had other tag along developments as part of the payback revenue and many have been down sized and delayed, the city do something (probably no language in deals to allow this) to force the development timeline ect or the property and incentives go back on the market. Many other projects are not seeing this type balking around the city.
June 5, 2022 at 11:19 AM
Anonymous said…
The tax reductions agreements are probably the only thing the City has to negotiate with. If the developer doesn't have tenants for an office building or the lab do you think they have the financing? The same could be said for the downsized hotel. Without tenants and financing there is not a lot of leverage by the City.
I am leaving for work right now and will drive thru Kelley Sq and I will look at the apartment being built. I will ask myself the same question I do every morning. Shouldn't this be going up faster than it is. In this residential market you would think the developer would be racing to get the buildings up. A good comparison that I will be able to see will be the Table Talk construction. The started the demolition, let's see how fast their construction goes.
For a project that was announce almost four years ago i thought I would have seen more than the City built ball park and garage and a half completed foundation for apartments.
June 6, 2022 at 3:01 AM
Anonymous said…
You do the demolition quickly because the structure is rptaxed by the city at the absurdly high commercial rate. It’s cheaper to slow roll the building because the city starts taxing the first stick you put up.
June 6, 2022 at 7:25 AM
Anonymous said…
The last comment brings up an interesting question. A developer buys a commercial property, land and a building that is taxed at the commercial rate, and demolishes the building with the intent of building apartments that will be taxed at the lower residential rate. When exactly does the City start taxing the property (land) at the residential rate because the City may already be losing money because the difference in the two rates. I hope they thought of this. This would be the case for the apartments across the street from the ballpark, the property that the Cove is being built on and now the Table Talk building.
June 6, 2022 at 3:11 PM
Anonymous said…
On top of going from a commercial rate to a residential rate you have the enormous TIFs handed out like candy for things people would build anyway.
June 7, 2022 at 6:42 AM
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