City Does not Know how it will fund its share of $63 million for Everbank

[Cheshire Cat]

There in lies part of the problem and that is part and parcel of the breakdown between the administration and council.  Some members are on the inside of some of these dealings and others are clueless.  There is a growing rift between our administrative and legislative branches of government that should be of concern to all the citizens of Jacksonville.  It is my understanding that when the most recent council liaison from the mayors office left, they never filled the opening.  That means in effect that there is no single person interacting between the two bodies of government.  This is either arrogance or ignorance on the part of the administration and it is creating sizable problems.

[Tacachale]

^DD is talking about John Crescimbeni's comment; he was speaking generally on the bed tax. He (correctly) said that the bed tax is dedicated to capital improvements, of which the scoreboard and endzone improvements would be one. It can't be used to pay salaries, keep the libraries open, or divert to any other area.

The legit questions about this are, is this the best use of our capital improvement funding? Will that funding source be enough to cover the city's whole contribution? If not, where will it come from?

[carpnter]

The question is how long will it take to collect the city's share of the $63 million in taxes?  Will it take 5 years or 20 years?  The Mayor's office should have been able to answer these questions at the news conference yesterday if they were asked and they definitely should be able to do so by now that they have been asked. 

The Mayor appears to be big on ideas but has no clue how to execute them and he doesn't appear to have surrounded himself with people who can.

[Cheshire Cat]

To Taca, is there a fund specific to sports or stadium use only or is that a misnomer?

[Cheshire Cat]

The question is how long will it take to collect the city's share of the $63 million in taxes?  Will it take 5 years or 20 years?  The Mayor's office should have been able to answer these questions at the news conference yesterday if they were asked and they definitely should be able to do so by now that they have been asked. 

The Mayor appears to be big on ideas but has no clue how to execute them and he doesn't appear to have surrounded himself with people who can.

Agreed!

[JayBird]

Maybe Mayor Brown has resorted to taking a page from Presidential campaigns "you must re-elect me, I need to be able to finish what I started".  It's in every politicians book under the chapter: Guaranteed to work every time.

[duvaldude08]

The question is how long will it take to collect the city's share of the $63 million in taxes?  Will it take 5 years or 20 years?  The Mayor's office should have been able to answer these questions at the news conference yesterday if they were asked and they definitely should be able to do so by now that they have been asked. 

The Mayor appears to be big on ideas but has no clue how to execute them and he doesn't appear to have surrounded himself with people who can.

I think its more of mayor brown being bullish and arrogant. He has his own agenda and does not care about nothing or no one else. Brown does brown wants to do and he feels like he doesnt have to answer to anyone about it. Thats how he operates

[CityLife]

The question is how long will it take to collect the city's share of the $63 million in taxes?  Will it take 5 years or 20 years?  The Mayor's office should have been able to answer these questions at the news conference yesterday if they were asked and they definitely should be able to do so by now that they have been asked. 

The Mayor appears to be big on ideas but has no clue how to execute them and he doesn't appear to have surrounded himself with people who can.

Remember though, the city's amount isn't $63 million, but $43 million. That said, I totally agree. I posted positively about the improvements in the Jaguars thread and speculate that it will be worth the investment in terms of intangible benefits (i.e keeping the Jaguars here and happy), as well as bring in more out of town sporting events (college football neutral games, soccer games, etc), ensure that the Florida-Georgia game stays (I've heard rumors that UGA wants to change it to Atlanta every other year or a home and home series), bring more visitors to Gator Bowl, increase Jags attendence, and numerous others....However, the city ABSOLUTELY needs to have some hard projections to prove those things.

I've said it before in other threads, but for goodness sakes, does anyone at COJ know how to do alternatives analysis. Or does the city just throw a dart at the wall and hope it sticks?

[JayBird]

Found this on Google, is this what you guys were asking?  Obviously the plan has been shrunk down, but it has the numbers

The funds set aside for the stadium currently total $17.6 million per year. That includes the Jaguars’ lease payment of $4 million and the ticketing and parking surcharge revenue of $1.84 million.

Lamping said the funding proposal is similar to the one used to rebuild the Gator Bowl for the Jaguars. Jacksonville was awarded the team in 1993 after the city pledged $121 million to rebuild the stadium.

Brown said it’s important to go into the bond market at the right time and noted that the city recently refinanced $1 billion of debt to free up $11 million for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

About $9 million of that money is being used to leverage private dollars for downtown improvements and an additional $2 million is slated for citywide economic expansion.

http://www.jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2013-04-13/story/mayor-alvin-brown-says-he-favors-video-boards-everbank

[Tacachale]

To Taca, is there a fund specific to sports or stadium use only or is that a misnomer?

The capital improvement fund from the bed tax is dedicated to the facilities in the Sports Complex. This was formerly the pot for convention center development.

[Cheshire Cat]

 

To Taca, is there a fund specific to sports or stadium use only or is that a misnomer?

The capital improvement fund from the bed tax is dedicated to the facilities in the Sports Complex. This was formerly the pot for convention center development.

Thank you for the clarification. 

[Cheshire Cat]

Found this on Google, is this what you guys were asking?  Obviously the plan has been shrunk down, but it has the numbers

The funds set aside for the stadium currently total $17.6 million per year. That includes the Jaguars’ lease payment of $4 million and the ticketing and parking surcharge revenue of $1.84 million.

Lamping said the funding proposal is similar to the one used to rebuild the Gator Bowl for the Jaguars. Jacksonville was awarded the team in 1993 after the city pledged $121 million to rebuild the stadium.

Brown said it’s important to go into the bond market at the right time and noted that the city recently refinanced $1 billion of debt to free up $11 million for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

About $9 million of that money is being used to leverage private dollars for downtown improvements and an additional $2 million is slated for citywide economic expansion.

http://www.jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2013-04-13/story/mayor-alvin-brown-says-he-favors-video-boards-everbank

So he plans on borrowing the money according to the article on the 13th and now says he does not know how he will fund the $43MM?  Good plan!   

[copperfiend]

What happened to the bed tax money that was mentioned in the Jags thread?

That what Im wondering. It seems as if the some of the city council is aware of whats going on and some are in the dark. The reports are becoming conflicting now. It seems to be, which Im not shocked, a breakdown of communication. (which has been happening since Brown has taken office)

According to the incoming Council President Bill Gulliford, the members of Council are "in the dark" about this entire deal.  He stated for the record in the TU article that the details are the "best kept secret in Jacksonville".

Maybe he should talk to Bill Bishop

[Cheshire Cat]

What happened to the bed tax money that was mentioned in the Jags thread?

That what Im wondering. It seems as if the some of the city council is aware of whats going on and some are in the dark. The reports are becoming conflicting now. It seems to be, which Im not shocked, a breakdown of communication. (which has been happening since Brown has taken office)

According to the incoming Council President Bill Gulliford, the members of Council are "in the dark" about this entire deal.  He stated for the record in the TU article that the details are the "best kept secret in Jacksonville".

Maybe he should talk to Bill Bishop

Well, council is not allowed to discuss city business privately.  He would need to call a public meeting to do so unless he should inquire during another advertised open meeting. 

[JayBird]

Let us step back for a moment because I think a lot of this is fueled by the fact the people are disappointed that this much money is going to stadium when clearly other projects in the city may be more important.  The owner of the Jaguars Mr. Kahn is known for keeping details about his businesses and ventures secret.  He prefers making the deal in the back room and ironing out all the wrinkles before making the bed.  Whereas the Mayor seems to just want to get news out there.  I am pretty sure they know exactly how this will be paid for, Kahn would not make this announcement only to have the city fall through and him look like a joke to his new NFL owners club friends.  I believe it all comes down to agendas. Kahn had to nail down this talk of Jags moving before season got underway because he wants everyone's head on one thing, winning.  The Mayor is clearly working everything from the angle of re-election, after all why else would you file 2 years ahead of time? 

In my opinion this has all been hashed out and agreed upon, just info is being kept quiet until it is beneficial to their agendas.