John Willis
Spinzone
                             

01/13/04  Here come the Jock Sniffers after your tax dollars!

We're going to leave the Daring Doings of Domingo to Spinzone for a few days because the bad guys are coming after us from all over the place.

Later this week, we will address those suburban do-gooders who pass out food to street bums in Downtown Dallas as if those people were two-legged pigeons, rather than adults who have made some very bad life choices -- but their own life choices.

Before we talk about the future of a 18-month to 2-year Jerry Jones campaign to destroy what's left of our convention business and rip off the entire County, rather than just Dallas -- let's have a quick history lesson.

In January of 1998, less than 1% (1,700) of all the voters approved the Hicks/Perot/Kirk sales tax.  Had 851 voters gone the other way, it would be dead.  We know there was vote fraud, but lacking the financial resources or manpower it was impossible to prove it.  One man even suggested computer fraud because of the way the numbers came in on election night.  We won early voting easily, but the election day votes came in by the same pro-arena margins with each count.  That does not happen. 
 

Just one component of the bitterness toward Our Downtown Betters (the ODB), Tommy Hicks (who isn't such a big tycoon these days), Ross, Jr. (who took our money and ran) and Ron Kirk (Con Jerk who spent 6 years carrying water and acting as chief Carnival Barker for the ODB).

Like your parents would say when there were unpleasant consequences from something you had been told not to do -- We told you so.

We told you :

		The Kirk sales tax would hurt our convention business, revenue from which WAS a big part of our municipal budget.  We under-estimated the impact because there was an immediate decline in bookings that has gotten worse with each passing year.  2003 convention business in Dallas was the worst in almost 10 years.
		Just like with Reunion, there would be no new development around the arena that was not already in the works.  Lots of promises, lots of out-of-town hoopla, lots of excuses, lots of cancellations.
		The sales tax would not be the only costs to Dallas taxpayers. Months after the election giving them the huge windfall from the Hicks/Perot/Kirk sales tax the Robber Barons were back at the crook on the council for an illegal Tax Increment Financing District (TIF).     Not only did the site not meet the test for a TIF, but Veletta Lill voted to approve the TIF despite her conflict of interest (husband is an American Airlines pilot and AA had already committed $195 million for naming rights to arena).  City argued that even if they violated state law, no citizen had the right to challenge their "legislative" decisions.
		All the new infrastructure requirements would delay other needed work, and that is happening as we speak.  The Calatrava string thing at Woodall Rogers is primarily to ease access to the arena.  Drive around there and look at all the new streets that have been constructed BEFORE your streets are getting fixed.

As much fun as it is to reminisce, we have a much more horrifying war with Jerry Jones and his hired thugs than we ever faced with Con Jerk and Robber Barons Hicks and Perot and their gang of high dollar thieves.

One fun thing that has happened, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and her husband Ray Hutchinson are not going to benefit from this new tax dollar grab.  The County Commissioners did the unthinkable and did not hire Ray to front their negotiations with Grandpa Jerry Jones.

The way Grandpa Jones is playing this game is so Arkansas.  He is wining and dining the Mayors in the suburban cities of the County to explain to them why their constituents should vote for imposing a county wide sales tax on top of the current hotel/motel and car rental taxes.  It probably is a pretty easy sale to some towns like Mesquite and Garland that don't really have a big hotel or car rental business or anything to attract tourists.

I would be amazed if the voters in Grand Prairie would risk hurting their new tourist attractions by imposing a sales tax that might send those visitors elsewhere.  Why would Irving support moving the stadium to Dallas?  Why would Dallas voters support a tax for a new stadium in Irving for a team that calls itself the Dallas Cowboys and spends much of its PR time explaining the criminal activity of its players?
 

Letters for Friday 12:05 AM CST on Friday, January 9, 2004 Gary Griffith, District 9, Dallas City Council, Dallas: Bring the Cowboys home to Fair Park

We need to bring the Dallas Cowboys home to Fair Park and build a state-of-the-art stadium there. The 70-year-old Cotton Bowl, which many of us love, is not doing well.    Why can't we remove the Cotton Bowl symbols and attach them to a new Cotton Bowl stadium at Fair Park that would serve as the home of the Dallas Cowboys?    Fair Park's 277 acres can accommodate much of what the Cowboys' organization wants in its proposed Dallas Cowboys Park. The city's new Fair Park master development plan already calls for a new midway and visitors center that would be a perfect partner for a Cowboys' museum and entertainment center. And DART light rail is coming to the Fair Park main gate by the end of the decade.    Dallas could keep the Texas-OU game from leaving if we have a 100,000-seat, retractable roof stadium the Cowboys are planning to build. . . .

In exchange, Grandpa Jones gets a stadium and a facility on the DART line that will be part of an historic part.  There is no reason to demolish the Cotton Bowl.  It can be refurbished to use for high school games and soccer events.

It's not very likely that Grandpa Jones is going to go for those terms.  He will want us to pay for all of it and give it to him tax free.

It's interesting that the City of Dallas always winds up underwriting business deals for Park Cities Robber Barons.  
 

Cowboys seek tax district for stadium: $100 million would pay team for infrastructure; officials express concern 07:38 PM CST on Sat, 1/10/04 By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Cowboys, seeking a new stadium built with public dollars, are considering a financing formula similar to the one used to build American Airlines Center five years ago ? although much more expensive.    The Cowboys plan to ask local governments for a special taxing district that would raise as much as $100 million beyond the $450 million the team has said it may need, according to Dallas officials. . . .  "My staff thinks the water, the sewer, the streets, the traffic lights, will be a little over $100 million," Mr. Benavides said. . . . the Cowboys suggested the district is only part of a larger body of negotiations. Irving, they noted, already has such a taxing district and is promoting its usefulness to the football club. . . . The Cowboys appear to be drafting a public-private partnership that would support their $1 billion vision of a year-round sports and entertainment district.    The stadium would cost as much as $650 million. The Cowboys foresee drawing perhaps $400 million of that total from a countywide hotel and car-rental tax. . . .  public funding for American Airlines Center included $125 million in hotel and car rental taxes and $25 million raised through a taxing district.    The team has said it would fund the rest of the development ? hotels, restaurants, shops and the like ? by itself. But it would desire reimbursement for building the public infrastructure that, in Dallas at least, would turn a shopworn industrial district into a resplendent tourist attraction. . . . Irving, which is promoting a site in Las Colinas, would probably require fewer public improvements than a downtown Dallas site that abuts the Trinity River. But Irving is still ready to offer as much as $60 million in infrastructure funds. . . . Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said she was blindsided by the Cowboys' request to create a TIF district and does not favor it. Ms. Miller also opposed the deal that created American Airlines Center.    "In my meeting with them four months ago, they never discussed getting a TIF," Ms. Miller said. "Regardless, I'm not in support at all of TIF money for it."    Although a city may contribute funds with a TIF, Dallas County would team up with the Cowboys to build the stadium. That's because county commissioners must negotiate a deal that would allow the team to use hotel and car-rental taxes to build the stadium. . . .  County Commissioner John Wiley Price said the request for a TIF is predictable.    "A TIF would not be uncommon if we talked about Boeing moving here, so what is the difference?" Mr. Price said. "At the end of the day, we'll look at what is best for the taxpayers."    Commissioner Jim Jackson, . . .  "It is hard to sell to the public if you are not going to generate any new taxes," Mr. Jackson said. . . .   "Everything is probably pointing toward the downtown Dallas location," Duncanville Mayor Glenn Repp said. "I think everybody in the room thought that was the most logical location. Las Colinas is kind of out in a corner." . . .  Mr. Jackson said the Cowboys are getting ahead of themselves by approaching local cities before they show their proposal to Dallas County. He said the county would probably offer its own proposal to the team. . . . Staff writers Eric Aasen and Dave Levinthal and WFAA-TV reporter Chris Heinbaugh contributed to this report.

What a shocker that Commissioner John Wiley Price would support another rip-off of Dallas taxpayers by a Park Cities Robber Baron.  He supported the Hicks/Perot/Kirk sales tax.  We hear there have been a couple of Park Cities fundraisers for JWP.  Gives a whole new twist to "Our Man Downtown".  Unfortunately "our" means the ODB's Park Cities branch.

Commissioner Jackson is right to assume that taxpayers would resist another TIF for another sports facility.  Most people didn't understand what happens with a tax increment financing district in 1998.  They didn't understand that two Park Cities Robber Barons would get new roads, new streets, new infrastructure and landscaping while Dallas taxpayers did without or waited in line for improvements around their homes and businesses.  You don't get to decide when and where your tax dollars get spent, but Park Cities Robber Barons do.  They get to withhold their tax dollars from the general fund and spend it to improve their property.

That's what Park Cities resident Grandpa Jones wants to do, too.  He wants to withhold his property taxes from the city and county and spend it improving his property.  That's how he would see the new stadium -- his property -- his tax exempt property.

Do you have a sense of d?j?vu?
 

Cowboys tell mayors of stadium plans:  Jones seeks leaders' support for using county tax revenue 09:36 AM CST on Fri, 01/09/04 By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning New

The Dallas Cowboys told local mayors Thursday about plans to build a stadium and entertainment complex in either Dallas or Irving.    The mayors of Cockrell Hill, Duncanville, Farmers Branch, Rowlett and Sachse attended a lunch meeting with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at Valley Ranch, officials said. . . .  Farmers Branch Mayor Bob Phelps. . . . "It would help the whole county."    The Cowboys are seeking political support for a stadium that would cost up to $450 million in hotel and car-rental tax revenue. . . .

Exactly how has the Cowboys playing at Texas Stadium helped the whole County for the past 30 years?  We've had lots of embarrassment from the drugging and philandering the players like so much.  We've even had two Good Samaritans murdered on Stemmons by one of Grandpa Jones' thugs.

What development have we seen around Texas Stadium?  All I see are a bunch of office/warehouse complexes, but nothing special.  Certainly, no great stuff that's there because of the proximity to Texas Stadium.
 

Vote on Cowboys stadium may wait:  Concerns raised that '04 ballot may be too full for Cowboys item 07:06 AM CST on Fri, 01/02/04 By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News

In Dallas County, 2004 was to be the year of the bountiful ballot. Voters would reap a copious crop of candidates for president, Congress, the Legislature and Commissioners Court, along with an eye-catching referendum on a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys. ... "I don't want to get the stadium issue, and the site issues of that mixed up in the partisan politics of a presidential election," County Commissioner Jim Jackson said. ... Negotiations for a public-private partnership with Dallas County could begin as early as late February or early March, county officials said. The team has said it would hope to have a new home by 2009. ... Political considerations could put off the referendum until 2005. ... County Judge Margaret Keliher . . . holding the stadium vote on another date could maximize the number of informed voters who participate in the referendum. ...  Commissioner John Wiley Price, the lone Democrat on the Commissioners Court, said he thinks the referendum should take place in 2004. A presidential election typically draws a higher turnout than any other election, he said. ...  Mr. Jackson, who is retiring from county government, said he is the chief advocate of delaying a referendum. Ms. Keliher and Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said they're considering the option but have not made a decision. ... No Jones Tax, a group led by Dave Capps, the owner of a car-rental company, favors a referendum on the date of the presidential election.    "I think one reason he [team owner Jerry Jones] does not want to have it then is because the advertising cost will be huge," Mr. Capps said. "He is not a political candidate, so he has to pay full rate for television. He has everything to gain by shoving it out." ... Commissioners . . . have named the Houston-based law firm of Andrews & Kurth as their legal counsel. ... The commissioners, . . .  turned down Vinson & Elkins and its attorney, Ray Hutchison, who has negotiated stadium deals in North Texas for 30 years.    Mr. Hutchison expressed surprise last week that Andrews & Kurth had been selected, saying he was informed 30 minutes after his presentation to the commissioners that they had chosen another firm. ... He criticized the deals that Andrews & Kurth struck in Houston. The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority has been placed under credit watch, he noted, and its lawyers failed to secure guarantees from the sports clubs that team owners would cover any cost overruns or enhancements to the stadiums.    "My approach was you do not expose the taxpayers to that kind of risk," Mr. Hutchison said. ... The sports authority was placed under credit watch because hotel and car-rental tax revenues declined, but the bonds that paid for the stadiums are insured, said Billy Burge, the chairman of the sports authority. ...

To hear Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson's husband claim he would protect the taxpayers makes you wonder why he didn't protect us from Tommy Hicks and Ross, Jr.  The idea of her as Governor with Attorney Ray as her consort really should give you shivers up your spine.

This all boils down once again to the overwhelmed and underserved citizens of Dallas bearing the brunt of this sales tax.  The local Hotel/Motel Association has got off their rears this time and shown enough courage to oppose this Jones tax.  They cowardly supported the Hicks/Perot/Kirk sales tax, although the State organization in Austin contributed to "It's a Bad Deal!!" because they knew it would be a killer for the hotel/motel business and by default our convention business.

What do the voters in Lancaster or Duncanville care if our convention business is destroyed?  Many so-called "Dallas" voters actually live in Duncanville and keep their parents' address as their voting address.  They subscribe to Domingo Garcia's philosophy about legal residency -- wherever you want it to be -- not where you actually live.

The audacity of Grandpa Jones is as hard to believe as his face job.  He has made a fortune off the Cowboys, but for Robber Barons like him and Hicks and Ross, Jr., it's all about getting more and more.

So here we are in 2004 contemplating getting stiffed by one Park Cities Robber Baron, rather than two.  Rather than asking for half of what Hicks and Perot got South Dallas voters and the city council to give them in 1998, Grandpa Jones wants 4 times as much from us.  Of course, we know that's just the beginning.

We are hearing promises of extensive development around a new stadium, like we were promised would happen around the Hicks/Perot arena, like we were promised would happen around Hunt/Folsom's Reunion arena -- and so on and so on.

These sports facilities always wind up costing us more and more and more and taking more and more and more of our tax revenue.

Nothing the Grandpa Jones people will say be all that different from what Con Jerk said while he hawked the arena deal.  Nothing the opposition will say will be all that different from our arguments against the Hicks/Perot arena deal.  It was a "Bad Deal" in 1998, and "It's a Bad Deal!! in 2004.

Like our slogan in 1998 "It's a Bad Deal!!", the opposition's slogan is pretty basic -- "No Jones Tax -- What tourists?  Use your own money, Jerry."