Brighton Councilman Jim Vogel highlights the folly the COMIDA review process
Those who don’t know Jim Vogel is an elected Brighton Town Councilman from the town of Brighton - the affected town - and spoke after Sandy Frankel the Brighton Town Supervisor (I didn’t get Supervisor Frankel on tape). They and other citizens of Brighton recently expressed to the COMIDA Board as it was considering granting abatements and waivers to a retail business.
The COMIDA grant to Brighton Lodging LLC was a forgone conclusion as evidenced by its ultimate approval as well as its awards of 100K in sales tax grants prior to input but listen to what Jim Vogel says about the entire application process. it is about 3 mins.
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Listen for the key points (His points - my words)
(15 sec) the Brighton Town Board voted no to supporting this project.
(26 sec) In the grants of 395K in subsidies and abatements are not worth one job.
(55 Sec) - It is a retail business and subsidizing this business will just draw from other like businesses. Rochester hotels already have a 40% vacancy rate. meaning no net gain on jobs.
(1.28) - Oh yeah - the application was filled out incorrectly - with glaring omissions. I guess that doesn’t matter because….
(2.30) - that didnt’ stop the COMIDA board from granting 100K in sales tax inducements.
(3:00) - Finally COMIDA is really not a bipartisan group. That great line from the Blues Brothers- “Oh yes we play both kinds of music Country and Western” comes into play here with the Monroe County legislature appointed board consisting of Conservatives and Republicans (just like the Water board but I’ll have more on that later this week).
So his argument is compelling. What was the result - COMIDA knows better than elected officials. Bob Hurlburt (Yes, clips of Bob are coming too) thinks this it is a George Tenet type “slam dunk”.
(Note - in some of my previous posts I referred to Brighton Lodging LLC incorrectly as Brighton Properties. - sorry.)
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STLO, yeoman’s work as always. Thanks!
[...] More later but He mentions Paul Haney as having well organized arguments. You can see them here. he also mention Jim Vogel. Brighton Councilman Vogel spoke at the actual hearing and you see his comments here. [...]