Disingenuous
editorial
I read and re-read your
editorial. It is disingenuous of you to say in the title "multiplex that won't cost us", then spend the bulk of the editorial listing a number of ways where
Nanaimo taxpayers provide costly subsidies. Revenue deferred by giving a tax
holiday is as much a cost to taxpayers as sending over a cheque to some special
interest group. It is fascinating of you to decry a tax holiday for a purported
hotel builder then propose it for the benefit of some Alberta millionaires wanting to make hockey profits off the backs of Nanaimo taxpayers.
The reason
the City of Nanaimo would not "guarantee...purchasing ice time" from previous advocates of a multiplex was because the amount they wanted to charge our
taxpayers was beyond exorbitant. I repeat, all studies indicate we are far
from having the size of population with sufficient disposable income (ie.
rich enough to pay high admission fees) to make a multiplex financially viable.
If your design and project is so good, pay for it yourself.
A subsidy is a
subsidy. Your bafflegab won't change that. I have studied the real costs of
multiplexes and I am not fooled by delusional rationalizations by those with
vested interests. Larry McNabb was not fooled either. "Gary, hockey is a great
game, but I ain't putting Nanaimo taxpayers in the poor house. I'll be damned if
I'm going to let Nanaimo taxpayers subsidize Alberta millionaires to get it. Not
now, not ever!"
I
trust Nanaimo taxpayers are not fooled either.
Gary Korpan
I agree 100%. "Build it, and they will come" is not always true, and we have several examples of that in Nanaimo already. The last thing we need it another hulking cement monument to the ambitions of City Council.
ReplyDeleteA city is an organic entity, and force feeding it with expensive experiments only diverts tax money from the unsexy needs of maintaining and improving the transportation system, the sewer lines, and all the other simple necessities of its residents.