Taking his marbles home

For such a big time tycoon, Tom Hicks certainly has shown himself to be a self-centered, spoiled brat. With his ego, he assumes our opposition to another $43 Million tax abatement for the Victory Project is because we just don't like him or Ross, Jr. It never occurs to bullies and egoists like Hicks or Ron Kirk or Perot, Jr., that people might just think the latest Victory proposal is a BAD DEAL!!

A perfect illustration of how removed from reality is Tom Hicks is his quote in a DMN article:

Victory fight over for Tom Hicks; Fed up with city on funding, he wants to sell stake in arena project 03/26/2002 By RICHARD ALM and DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News

Mr. Hicks also said real-estate developments around The Ballpark in Arlington and a minor-league stadium in Frisco would go ahead as scheduled ? with the backing of local government.

"The leadership in Frisco and the leadership in Arlington have taken a creative approach in trying to create a win-win situation."

Comparing either city to Dallas is ludicrous. Dallas is experiencing the problems of urban maturity that most North Eastern cities have already endured and survived to prosper. Neither Frisco or Arlington have anything comparable to Downtown Dallas. Both cities have the resources to pay their public safety officers better wages than their counterparts in Dallas earn because they are not trying to put band aids on an aging infrastructure that has not been maintained.

The real lunacy of this latest Hicks/Perot extortion is that we can spare $43 Million in revenue. We need every tax dollar we can get, and we have none to spare for another giveaway to Billionaires. Don't be like one local talk show host and get taken in by Palladium's smooth operator, Ken Wong. His job is to sell this deal as necessary to save the Victory Project. Your job is to stay grounded in reality.

Here's an idea, let's call their bluff!

In their article, Alm and Michaels quote city councilman Mitch Rasansky:

Mr. Rasansky, a real estate developer, said he doubts that politics forced Mr. Hicks out of the deal. Instead, Mr. Rasansky argued, Mr. Hicks is making a business decision "because he thinks it's a good deal to sell at this time."

"He is a big boy with thick skin," said Mr. Rasansky, who represents North Dallas. "I don't think the political atmosphere made him change his mind. This is a good time for him to unload the property."

It is a good time to "unload the property" for Tom Hicks. It is a good time for a serious developer to plan and build a reasonable project at Victory. The problem for egoists is doing anything to scale. They must have the biggest, the grandest, the most bells and whistles. That only lasts until the next over-built project.

Tom Hicks did two dirty deals during the arena negotiations. He put Ron Kirk's wife on one of his boards because she is Black. That's what he said -- so, don't get mad at me. Just a couple of months after the arena election, Tom Hicks hired John Ware for one of his companies with an annual salary of $500,000. We were supposed to believe it was not a quid pro quo deal. Right! And donkeys fly!

Stan Aten: I do not understand why any "sane" business man would want to build additional office or retail space in the DFW area at this time. With a 23.5% vacancy rate in office space, it will be years before any new office buildings need to be built.   As for retail, there is far too many shopping centers in this area that are half empty.

If you give a tax break to the Victory project, you could hurt the property values of existing office buildings downtown which would cost you more in property taxes than any potential increase from new development.

Since the value of office buildings is based on the rent they can charge, if you increase the supply of offices, the rent will go down.

I think you should just say no and focus on improving downtown.
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Rad Field:
I was out "hand watering" today... This Summer we have some restrictions to save water. The catch is that one cannot get the "sidewalk" wet... Well, I hand watered today the way the Water Dept. Prof. Engineer showed me at a bond meeting. To my surprise, the wind blew some water on my sidewalk. I hope the "Watering Police" did not see the water drift to the sidewalk. Also, I got water on my sidewalk while I washed the car. I guess I'll start washing the car on the grass to comply with the new laws.

I don't know what the automatic car washes will do. I drove by several of them, and gracious me, there was water on the concrete.

The " Watering Police " are going to be kept busy 24 hours per day. I have not idea what the landscapers will do, as they can not irrigate from around 10:00 A. M. to 6:00 P.M., neginning in June. I believe they will need many flood lights for night work, as well as the Park Dept.

These Restrictions are "LAW". This is not just a case of "do your best". The fines go up to $2,000 per offense. I may make my garden and yard out of concrete, and save a small grass patch upon which to wash my car.

To top it all. The City Police Department purchased 56 new squad cars with about $1,500,000 of Federal Grant money that was to be directed to other law enforcement needs.. Now the Fed.'s want their money back and are holding up an additional $3,000,000 scheduled for this year.

Goofs like that should be a crime. And the City worries about watering getting on the walkway (fence, house, or whatever).. Guess I'm too old to cry right now.

Can you believe all this?

Speaking of former City MisManager John Ware. We are now going to have to REPAY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT $1.18 MILLION because under Ware's watch, the city bought patrol cars with block grant money and waited 2 years to do that. Both are violations of grant rules, and we have to find $1.18 MILLION "because the Feds don't take American Express".

A million here -- a million there -- pretty soon the cupboard's bare.

Mr. Hicks is in a better position than most to know Dallas is in dire straits. Thanks to him and his fellow Robber Baron Ross, Jr. and their puppets Ron Kirk and John Ware!

Those old smoke and mirror balanced budgets are crashing in sharp shards all around us. Tharp reports Former City Auditor Robert Melton caught the city's grant problem in 1999 with plenty of time to fix the matter:

Now, City MisManager John Ware was gone by 1999, but he was there when the decision was made to use the money illegally in the first place. City MisManager Ted Benavides has the same mindset as Ware -- ride it out and see if we get away with it -- or maybe Ted was hoping someone would hire him away before the stuff hits the fan.

And, who was Robert Melton's biggest enemy at City Hall?   Mayor PreTend Poss!   MPT Poss is banging the drum for the $43 Million rebate to Victory. She was just horrible to Melton. All the guy did was do his job right, which made all the crooks at City Hall nervous. When Melton left, he took a job in Florida and used some of his vacation and comp time while he worked for his new employer. Poss and Con Jerk made a big deal out of that, but he did nothing wrong. Most people when they leave a company get paid for accrued vacation or comp time.

Now, remember it was Poss who supported Al Lipscomb for a position with the League of Municipal Cities AFTER HE WAS INDICTED.   Con Jerk went to Amarillo to testify on behalf of Old Al AFTER HE ADMITTED TO TAKING A BRIBE FROM CALIGULA RIZO. Yet, they were both outraged that Robert Melton would use accrued comp and vacation time. Strange rationale, wouldn't you say?

MPT Poss never lets a little thing like integrity get in the way of her eternal quest to be Mayor. She would suck up to Ben Laden if she thought he could help her. When Ch. 8's Chris Heinbaugh interviewed her regarding Hicks' threat to leave -- she said our unwillingness to throw another $43 Million at Victory sends a signal to the country that it's tough to do business in Dallas.

Wrong, saying NO to more tax abatements for Victory says our city council is finally facing reality!

MPT Poss is so out of step with what Dallas voters want, that she probably still thinks she could have beat Laura Miller if the ODB had let her run in place of Tom Dunning. Gosh, don't you hope she runs against Laura in 2003? What fun!

According to Heinbaugh, Hicks has offered his share in the Victory project to Palladium. He might want to offer his share to Belo to go with what they already own in the project. Unless something happened that was not reported, Cuban refused to buy out Belo when he bought Ross, Jr.'s interest in the Mavericks. With that ownership, goes an interest in the development deal!

Another conflict of interest for Belo? Imagine that!

Mr. Hicks can take his marbles and go home if he wants, because opposition to another $43 Million tax abatement for Victory is not about him -- it's about

ANOTHER $43 MILLION FOR VICTORY.