by:  Diane Benjamin

According to the Coliseum’s own reporting, the building produced an economic impact of  $98,000,000 since opening!   http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6569

Did you get your cut?  Is the City of Bloomington debt free because of all this economic activity?  Are incomes rising?  Are property value in downtown Bloomington rising?  (Not the Pantagraph building:  http://blnnews.com/2014/06/20/how-did-the-pantagraph-manage-this/)  City Manager David Hales repeated this number on WJBC this morning.  He claims that’s the number to dwell on, not the mismanagement numbers.

Say something often enough people will believe it . . . . .

Here’s a better question:

How did they calculate $98,000,000 of economic activity?

Did they have extensive spreadsheets?  No

Did they have input from local officials or economic development people?  No.

Did they factor in the payments made to pay for the building?  No.

Did they factor in the money taxpayers didn’t have to spend because it was built?  No.

Did they factor in that Bart Rogers takes his salary and leaves town?  No.

Did they factor in lost Real Estate Taxes on the property because it is City owned?  No.

I sent a Freedom of Information Act Request  to the City for how the $98 million was calculated.  This is what I received:

The Coliseum obviously used advanced sophisticated measuring techniques.  They guessed.

These people are managing  an expensive City investment.  Feel better?

Will you ever believe an Economic Impact number again?

.

.

.