We’ll just a quick glance at his article he’s already got it wrong on the bonds.
The CFD will be issuing the bonds. Not the City of Tempe. The CFD is it’s own legal entity. It’s right in the packet and was clearly defined at the last meeting. Nothing “fine print” about that. The one caveat to it is the interest rate will be higher than it would be if the city itself took them out.
He goes on with a lot more scary stuff and “whatifisms.” But he clearly cherry picked the agreement.
That's Neil deMause's entire schtick. He hates on every deal regardless. There are a couple of occasions he and I went back and forth about a few things. Like once I pointed out the income taxes on players salaries and he was like "well if there were no sports people would spend their money on other things and those places would have to hire more people." If people who would be going to games go to movies and out to dinner instead the extra waiters and ticket takers won't generate the same payroll taxes as an NFL team would. There was another instance where the Browns were looking for infrastructure basically to connect downtown to the lakefront. He kept calling it "stupid infrastructure" If you haven't been to Cleveland, its one of the most poorly planned cities in America. 6 miles of lakefront is undeveloped and the lakefront isn't connected to downtown (there is a major bluff but also a stupid elevated highway, also a private airport taking up 450 acres of lakefront land) I was like "Browns or not that infrastructure is needed" and laid out my case and literally everyone who knew Cleveland was in agreement. Him and his minions referred to satellite images and told me I was wrong about a city a lived in for 13 years.
That being said there are a few things:
1) yes it makes sense to kickback property taxes that wouldn't exist but-for the development
2) If the development will result in additional costs to the municipality to service (like more cops needed on event days etc) then yes its still a net cost vs a landfill
3) Even if its a net cost on the development itself you can make it up through additional sales taxes and higher property tax revenue from surrounding areas via an uplift in property values and more commercial activity. This will be hard to measure and guys like deMause will always poo-poo that.
4) Even if it is a cash-flow loss, not every deal is a cash flow win. You do things as a city for quality of life. I voted for cigarette taxes when I was a smoker for stadiums because I like sports and liked having nice stadiums to watch them in. If Tempe residents think Tempe would be more fun if an arena was there they won't care if it costs them $20 a year or whatever in taxes
5) The one wrench in all this is that the RFP was specifically written for the Coyotes. Unless the site could have an MLS stadium there was no one else who could have bid. If the RFP was open then you could compare Coyotes with other proposals and see whats the best option
