More on Brighton going after COMIDA
I wrote about about it over the holidays, but you may have missed it. It is worth a reread - Brighton is seeking return on COMDIA funds.
The Messenger Post has a nice above the folder headline, “Brighton to COMDIA: ‘We have a problem in this county“
Um, yep, lots of problems, but let’s start with COMDIA:
That’s because the Town Board is trying to recoup money that COMIDA gave to Brighton Lodging LLC., a company that tried to renovate the Wellesley Inn at 797 E. Henrietta Road. In October, the group withdrew a request for help from COMIDA, but $60,000 from mortgage tax is still up for grabs, said Brighton Town Board member Ray Tierney.
Say what you want about COMIDA, what it does or what it is supposed to do. As I understand it, the Wellesley Hotel owners (Manish and Andy Patel) were awarded various COMDIA grants which exempted them from sales and mortgage taxes if they met certain conditions like - create a job, use local labor and so on. The Wellesley hotel owners failed to do so, withdrawing their application BUT not until they realized some benefit - in this case - keeping 60K instead of paying it to the County of Monroe and the Town of Brighton in taxes.
Got that? Can you say ENRON accounting? Where profits were realized based on projections not actual numbers.
So will we, and I say we because it is our tax dollars that COMIDA redistributes, allow the Wellesley hotel to received tax breaks based on pre-conditions and when they don’t meet the pre-conditions we allow them to keep the tax break. I hope not.
So what does COMDIA have to say about this?
Nothing
A message left at COMIDA offices wasn’t returned, but in May, COMIDA Acting Executive Director Judy Seil told the Post that the organization was simply following the tax abatement policy of Brighton and that the board still believed in making an investment in the property.
Here is a quote from May. MAY! a lot has happened since May like the Patel’s inability to satisfy COMIDA’s requirements.
Time for COMDIA to come clean and help recover taxpayer money.
Look, the Brighton Town board– but really, Ray Tierney, who has just fought tooth and nail on this– are to be commended for going after the COMIDA money.
But there’s a bigger issue here– why was this money ever allocated?
COMIDA’s purpose is supposed to be:
How does providing money to a hotel accomplish the purpose of increasing jobs in Monroe county?
“Gee, Marge, Brighton NY has a great new hotel. Let’s cancel the vacation to Disney World, and go there, instead!”
–> Anyone who would go to that hotel would have already been visiting Monroe County. Building another hotel does not increase the job base, it only moves customers from one facility to another. Arguably, a hotel right on the County border might encourage someone who was going to stay over the line to stay in Monroe– but that’s a weak (and not applicable) argument at best (Ontario County isn’t our competitor in the job game– our competition is Iowa and India).
IDA funds should not go to any business (construction, cleaning, restaurant, hotel) that is primarily providing services to people who are physically in Monroe county. Those businesses do not provide new jobs– they only compete with other businesses in Monroe County.
Maybe just the opposite– by providing a non-level playing field in those cases, COMIDA is distorting the economic system and *hurting* Monroe County.
IDA funds ought to go to businesses that are providing goods and services to customers in Texas and Argentina and China. Those are *new* jobs that would not otherwise be available to Monroe residents.
So if COMIDA really cared about improving the economy of Monroe County, a hotel would never have been considered for COMIDA money.
Keep in mind– any COMIDA money that goes to an inappropriate project: (1) comes out of your and my pocket and (2) doesn’t go to an appropriate one.
It’s only a better-than-zero-sum game if COMIDA dollars are used to improve the economic climate of Monroe by helping businesses that are providing new jobs that otherwise would be located in Colorado.
I don’t see how you can argue that a hotel would do that.
[...] You have heard or read various accounts about COMIDA on rochesterturning. Just do a search on COMIDA. Most recently the Town of Brighton’s attempts to recover COMDIA benefits the Wellsley Hotel. The Wellesly Hotel who received benefits but who failed to met the basic COMIDA requirements. [...]
[...] Like a bad penny, COMIDA continues to make the news. The town of Brighton is looking to recover the tax revenue COMIDA misdirected. Metro Justice and others simply want public accountability and are packing the [...]