Paulson stadium deal will risk city's general fund
Despite outright lies from the mayor to the contrary, the borrowing for the pending renovation of PGE Park for Little Lord Paulson's soccer team would indeed be backed by the City of Portland's general fund. Here's the request for proposals for the interim financing for the deal, which could amount to as much as $12 million and be outstanding for as long as five years. It specifically states:
SECURITY FOR THE LINEOh, and the whole thing is going to be negotiated and closed in a week. What a complete and utter disaster in the making.The City pledges its Available General Funds, which are all taxes and other legally available general funds of the City....
Security Full faith and credit
Tax Status Taxable
Especially given the known fact that the permanent financing for this project is going to be quite unorthodox, if it's feasible at all, the terms of the interim financing are particularly important. And there's no mistaking that the city's general fund is the ultimate deep pocket for that borrowing.
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Comments (15)
But but but Dan Saltzman said it WOULDN'T be backed by the general fund, so you must be misreading it...
Color me shocked.
Posted by Don | January 25, 2010 5:11 PM
At the rate things are going, why don't we just ask Johnny Knoxville to film Jackass 3-D at the new field when it's done?
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | January 25, 2010 5:13 PM
This seems to answer your question earlier today about how the city could get interim financing for such a squirrelly plan.
Posted by Allan L. | January 25, 2010 5:34 PM
So, is our tv media and our New York owned daily paper in this town really this asleep? or has the Paulson/Leonard/Katz/Adams machine managed to buy off / intimidate all the news directors ?
Thank you Jack for uncovering more on your lunch break than any of our full-time daily reporters put together!
Posted by RANZ | January 25, 2010 5:46 PM
When it comes to the city's finances, as far as I can tell the local media don't understand, don't care, or both.
Posted by Jack Bog | January 25, 2010 5:47 PM
When it comes to the city's finances, as far as I can tell many of the local Blues don't understand, don't care, or both.
The ruling creeps have figured out long ago they can get away with anything.
They must be removed. Starting with Creepy.
But the Blue/Progressives can't grasp this.
So in the Creepy recall they fret over who may be involved in the recall process instead of getting it done.
Check this out. And ask what's the objective?
To have a politically correct process of throw the creep out?
http://tabarnhart.net/gordly-wurster-epic-failure-democracy
Posted by Ben | January 25, 2010 7:08 PM
I've just gone through the city's website looking for the RFP described here. And even though I have the name of the staff contact, and the Ordinance No. 183070 authorizing this action, thanks to the link posted here, I can't find anything on the city's website.
So, other than reading Bojack, how was anyone in the public supposed to know about this RFP without having a printed copy of the Daily Journal of Commerce, or a paid subscription to view the DJC online?
By the way, by using the city website's search engine I found the ordinance listed on the council agenda for August 5, 2009, the date of its second reading. But the agenda doesn't provide a link to the actual ordinance.
Posted by Peter Apanel | January 25, 2010 7:18 PM
Mr Bog, why do you wory about the City Budget? They know they can raise the water/sewer bills any time they want to make up the diff.
Posted by Steve | January 25, 2010 8:22 PM
Randy; Salzman(who i gave a coffee for in my living room,before he ever held office); Go Fish; Sam:
You are making the biggest mistake of your former careers.
Posted by john f. bradach, sr. | January 25, 2010 8:35 PM
I understand that the permanent financing is to be through 25-yr zero coupon bonds. Unless the PGE park license and user fees are to be deposited into a sinking fund account to be used to retire those bonds (+ accrued interest) at maturity, rather than being dumped into the City's general fund, the general fund will have to retire the bonds. Could such a financing of the general fund be the real reason why our fearless leaders are so enamored of the Paulsons and MLS?
Posted by Alex Hamilton | January 25, 2010 8:56 PM
Don't forget that there are still tens of millions still to be paid off on the previous PGE Park remodel. Will there be enough ticket tax for all of this? Dubious in the extreme.
Posted by Jack Bog | January 25, 2010 9:02 PM
By doing this, our elected leaders are ordaining that your and my tax dollars are locked in for the Paulson deal, in preference to, and if necessary at the expense of, training cops not to be thugs, summer recreation, 911 answers, parks maintenance, street cleaning, fire service, police service, potholes, neighborhood associations, arts, or any other general service of the City.
Oh, yes, and did we mention that there will be no more baseball at Civic Stadium in our lifetimes? That's nice icing for the cake, innit?
Am I right that the repayment on this debt becomes defacto senior to any other city debt, including the outstanding debt for the previous remodel we're using this to tear out?
Posted by dyspeptic | January 26, 2010 12:50 PM
Jack, you are the winner of this years Pulitzer......at least for the Pulitzer Blog. Thank you for your investigations and followup.
Posted by Jerry | January 26, 2010 1:32 PM
"Outright lies from the mayor"?
Who would ever have thought it?
Never in Portland! Perish the thought!
Posted by Max | January 26, 2010 5:35 PM
The sports bastards are the same everywhere:
http://www.samefacts.com/2010/01/california-politics/some-new-scenery-along-the-slow-downward-path-of-uc-berkeley
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | January 27, 2010 7:06 AM