COMIDA is Republican for I know better than you do
Metro Justice authored a piece a while back titled COMIDA isn’t Spanish for Free Lunch. I thought about using that title for this post but that would be an insult to the Spanish language as well as free lunches everywhere.
Geez
Just got back from the COMIDA public hearing regarding granting Brighton Properties LLC a $166,000 dollar tax incentive for renovating a hotel across from MCC. I’ll have video up later when RTs video department isn’t busy routing for the Sabres (Go Sabres!) I have to edit and pare down some of the more salient points. Nevertheless here is a brief summary of the public meeting.
The intent of the meeting was for COMIDA representatives to gather information at a public forum so they could report back to the COMIDA board at a future date. The COMIDA reps were Judy Seil and Mike Townsend (the COMIDA lawyer). No one on the COMIDA board was present because, as Mike Townsend explained, by law they don’t have to be present.
The meeting lasted about an hour, 60 or so people (my estimate) were in attendance including elected officials and residents from Brighton, a contingent from Metro Justice, and Progressives in Action. I didn’t see any press.
Approximately 15 people spoke at the forum. Several other different people addressed group during a Q&A session. Manesh Patel (the applicant) spoke in favor of the proposal, EVERYONE ELSE who spoke was opposed to the proposal.
When the videos are posted - you can see the points for yourself.
So this is what I learned at the meeting
1. Brighton (or another town for that matter) has no say in how their projected tax revenue is diverted via COMIDA projects. So the proposed 166K in tax incentives (tax credits that don’t have to be paid by the company but have to be paid by someone) will potentially increase local town or school taxes (or both) because of the loss of this tax revenue stream. Someone has to pay and that would be other tax payers. So we have tax reallocation without representation. Simply stated- Ms Brooks - Steve Minarik and their political appointees via the Republican Monroe County Legislatures seem to know best how to allocate a town’s tax dollar revenue stream.
2. Manesh Patel bought the property, paid a lot of money for the property and his opportunity to conclude a successful business deal DEPENDED on his ability to secure a COMIDA grant. I’ve written before that if you business is dependent on a tax incentive you don’t have a business plan. That is what Mayor Bloomberg says about tax incentives. What I say is this, unless you are in a Disney movie if you want a prom date you better ask someone before the prom lest you go alone. Sounds like corporate welfare to me.
3. COMIDA can give 100K sales incentives without approval or input from anyone outside COMIDA. They granted 100K in sales incentives to Brighton Properties LLC. If the deal fails, there is no way to recover these incentives. Oh, with these incentives, someone has to fill the financial void. i.e. - 100K incentives granted means 100K in lost revenue that has to be replaced or the levels of service need to be reduced.
4. COMIDA is a bipartisan commission consisting of member of the Republican and Conservative party. Yep, like that line from the Blues Brothers movie- Oh, we have both kinds of music, country and western.
There is more but chew on that for now. The rest is tied to the video clips.
So what do we have? tax allocation without representation, dependence on a government hand-out to conclude a private deal, lack of accountability and the political appointees of COMIDA making decisions that override decisions by elected officials.
Something is not right here. Metro Justice highlighted a reform bill that is working its way in Albany. We need reform NOW.
Watch for the video uplinks. I’ll have more commentary later probably over the weekend.
Related posts:
[...] rochesterturning.com: turning the tide upstate There is more but chew on that for now but it is tied to video clips. So what do we have? tax allocation without representation, dependence on a government hand-out to conclude a private deal, lack of accountability and the political appointees of COMIDA making decisions that override decisions by elected officials. [...]
Great work, stlo7!
This was a really nice post indeed
Wow. No other press was there? This is 100% added value, then. Nicely done. Thanks for bolding the key points (although I DID read it all.
I didn’t make the connection that the county is basically screwing the towns, and the towns can’t do a damn thing about it! That’s not right.
Unfortunately, I arrived late. I did however get to see Tierney lay into the COMIDA Attorney. Being classified as a tourist attraction/destination makes me reconsider my travel plans this summer. As a Brighton resident I’ll just stay home.
I heard a report on WXXI this morning. I’ll look for something in the paper.
Yep - the tape was fun. Did you see at the end how the two COMIDA folks were packing up while Tierney was talking?
They (the COMIDA crew) wanted out of there fast. I was sitting next to Mr. Patel, and from the corner of my eye I couldn’t help but notice his incessant foot tapping. Hmm…. body language is so telling.
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[...] So Brighton lodging LLC applied for more than 100K in incentives and as a result a public hearing on April 24, 2007 occured in the town of Brighton. For about 2 hours speaker after speaker spoke against the package. I wrote about the summary here, [...]
[...] (dba ConsServe). On the surface the awards look - well better than the Brighton lodging award. I mean Brighton Lodging only had to create a single job. These companies at least - per COMDIA - supposed to create 48, 6 and 4 respectively (ConServe says [...]
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