Lake Expo, MO
Oct 19 2007
The Good…The Bad…The Ugly
Friday, October 19, 2007 10:11 AM CDT
Hammons Hotels TIF good for Osage Beach…Only bad blood can come
from condemning deeds of Ottoman Empire…Shawnee Bend hydrant ordeal
just keeps getting uglier
Good
The Osage Beach Tax Increment Financing Commission has made a
well-considered decision that will have far-reaching implications for
the fiscal future of the lake.
The commission unanimously approved a proposal from John Q. Hammons
Resorts and Hotels, sending the matter on to the city’s Board of
Aldermen for consideration.
The Hammons organization – perhaps the strongest such business in the
country – plans to build a nearly $100 million resort hotel in Osage
Beach. They have asked for just over $3 million in reimbursable TIF
dollars and another $3 million in a hotel-specific sales tax.
ADVERTISEMENT
As TIF Commission Chairman Gary Hamner rightly pointed out, the city
and taxing entities are being asked to invest $6 million up front as
pump priming for an expected $60 million in additional tax revenues
over the next two decades. A simple formula for success.
Hamner said opening the door for a world-class 300-plus room hotel,
spa and convention center will recenter the Osage Beach and Lake of
the Ozarks tourism industry. The loss of room and resort space to
condominium development lakewide has made it increasingly difficult
to attract short-term visitors. This hotel project is an important
part of putting that component back in the lake mix. The commission
members and chairman embraced the lake’s future with their
affirmative vote.
Not every TIF deal is a bargain. Longtime Lakers will remember the
North Port disaster and its ongoing ramifications in Miller County.
However, when an organization of the quality of Hammons Hotels offers
to partner with public entities to the benefit of all concerned, it
is a very good idea to accept the offer. Good for the TIF Commission
for doing so.
Bad
The resolution floating around Congress to condemn killers long dead
is not just bad, it is stupid.
Although a lot of Democrats are backing away from the meaningless
move to label the death of a million Armenians in the century-gone
Ottoman Empire as genocide, the move itself has angered the modern
Turkish government.
It is worth remembering that Turkey is what passes for a democracy in
the Muslim world and is a key element in our military structure in
the world’s most troubled region.
It is also worth remembering that the resolution is meaningless, the
empire and the killers are long ago turned to dust. Certainly the
slaughter of the Armenians was wrong but what in the world does it
matter now? If the current Turkish government kills an Armenian, then
let’s pay attention. Digging up the past dead in a world knee deep in
fresh bleeding bodies is just ridiculous.
We increasingly appear to be led by a bunch of knuckleheads on both
sides of the aisle.
The ones that are not in bathrooms looking for dates are in the halls
of Congress worrying about things that do not make us safer, richer
or more likely to fiscally survive a trip to the emergency room.
Ugly
Those in charge of Sunrise Beach and Lake Ozark – the people who are
charged with using your money to bring you police, water, sewer and
other public services – have decided instead to spend your money
keeping others from having fire hydrants.
Not satisfied with a local court’s decision to allow the hydrant
project on Shawnee Bend move forward, the cities have decided to
appeal the ruling. That will take months if not years and thousands –
if not hundreds of thousands – of your dollars. Dollars that will pay
no policeman, deliver no service, provide no benefit.
Lake Ozark, for its part, has a legitimate gripe with the water
company involved. That makes this move no more palatable for
taxpayers, but it does make some kind of sense.
Sunrise Beach just wants to annex everything in site and is blocking
this move by the water company as part and parcel of land greed.
Sunrise Beach officials want more territory so they can misspend even
more tax dollars. There is no plan, there is no reasonable goal.
There is only an apparent desire to keep the homeowners of Shawnee
Bend from having fire hydrants, hiding behind the sham of one day
annexing people who will go to the barricades to prevent that move.
It is either municipal stupidity, envy or both.
The collective political skills, vision and sense of the Sunrise
Beach board would not impress a third grader.
This case will drag on while the people at the end of Shawnee Bend
wait for the next house to burn down.
This is municipal mismanagement at its most ugly.
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