Elk Grove News Minute - Elk Grove taxpayers are getting rolled like a drunk off a bender
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2024/05/taxpayers-can-be-rolled-like-a-drunk.html
Ask any criminal predator who is an easy mark, and almost uniformly they will tell one of the easiest prey is a drunk coming off a bender. They might not realized for days they got rolled.
Hell, even Buck Owns will tell you a drunk is easy prey in a jail!
A now for a little entertainment from Bakersfield.
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A now for a little entertainment from Bakersfield.
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I love how the zoo people are pedaling this. If it was so great, why isn't Sacramento pushing to keep it? If Steinberg and crew they really wanted to, they could move the zoo to far north Natomas, or at least the Innovations Park site at the old Arco Arena. The sad truth his they are saying "good riddance." They get to keep the Sacramento Zoo name and make Elk Grove pay for it. Elk Grove is such an easy mark!
BTW, Mayor Bobbie, rumor has it you've been in talks build you movie studio operation in Elk Grove!
The staff report is cleverly written and dangles the goodies before our eyes and saves the all-important financing plan for the very last. Evidently, the City no longer proclaims that the taxpayer subsidy of the zoo will be an economic development 'investment that will pay for itself and then some--now it justifies the taxpayer subsidy using laughable faux-sophisticated buzz words like, "vibrancy", "lifestyle amenity", "marketing and branding", and "regional leadership."
Then there's the Art Plan. The report discusses the budget for the zoo's public art and provides the formula for figuring out the amount, but leaves it to the reader to calculate the budget for themselves--so I did...try $3.5 million at current construction cost estimates. Maybe just a set of bronze statues of our Mayor and City Council would suffice?
Then after the glitzy pictures and fluff are dangled before the reader, the report finally gets down to brass tacks--the finance plan. The City is pretty confident that mass euphoria by the masses will have already set in by then, so all that talk about preliminary budgets, bonding, contingencies, and vague Zoological Society commitments will be seen as nothing more than a footnote. The report defensively reiterates that no Measure E sales tax will be used, but budget reserves are still taxpayer money. Putting different labels on taxpayer money is nothing more than the City playing Three-Card Monte with us!
Kicking the can down the road on the Financing/Cost Sharing Agreement and long-term operation of the zoo by the Society, includingresponsibilities for maintenance of the improvements raises a red flag in my book. The past history of the City shows they say one thing one day, but do something different the next. At least the bond underwriters will turn over every stone for about one-third of the money to be spent on construction.
Our City should have consulted with the Oakland City Council on this zoo deal. Oakland figured out how not to be an easy mark for the Raiders and Athletics sports teams and saved their taxpayers a lot of money in the end.
There's a reason why a new zoo hasn't been built in this country for over 30 years!
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