Archive for July 19th, 2007
Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina after a recent veto of legislation that would permit tax incentives for large, outdoor retailers.
“I’m not here to say I don’t want Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops to come to South Carolina, but I don’t think it makes good common sense to penalize small, family-owned businesses by using their tax dollars to bring new retailers to the state,” Sanford said.
“Business shouldn’t be grown based on who has the best lobbyists in Washington; you ought to grow your business by competing in the marketplace.”
Source: Governor speaks out against incentives for retailers
Technorati tags: Corporate Welfare, Bass Pro, Buffalo, South Carolina, government, subsidies
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Tuesday night at The Church, Larry Quinn’s plan for Bass Pro was exposed for the special interest agenda it is. Corporate Welfare is not the way to jump start downtown development and not the way to use our chance to build a waterfront canal district based on Buffalo’s rich history.
Suddenly, after the lid was blown off of Larry Quinn’s plan, Anthony Gioia and Jack Quinn have quit the ECHDC. Certainly, one must wonder if they quit out of frustration over a bad plan.
For a description of the plan for the waterfront development, based on the historical significance the Erie Canal played in our development as a Nation, read this post by Todd Mitchell.
Yesterday, Donn Esmonde did a good job enumerating what is wrong with the Bass Pro plan.
? It undercuts a hard-fought, citizen-shaped, history-based plan already in progress.
? It gives us a watered-down version of the megastore that was supposed to come to the vacant Aud. At barely 100,000 square feet, it will be hardly bigger than the 77,000-square-foot Gander Mountain store we already have.
? It kills one of our limited natural assets ? the heritage tourism potential of the canal?s definitive historic site. ?The decision-making process has gone completely off-track,? said Michael Tomlan, head of Cornell University?s program in historic preservation planning. ?A bigbox retailer does not do justice to the historic nature of the site.?
? It ignores the history plan?s call for smaller-scale development in 19th century- style buildings that would create a ?canal village? attraction.
? It displaces the planned public/festival space that downtown needs.
? It violates waterfront development rules that have worked from Manhattan?s Battery Park to Milwaukee: Create public access and green space, which leads to step-by-step development without huge taxpayer handouts.
? It ignores nearby alternatives for a Bass Pro store, off the history site.
? It brings a mall-style model to a city waterfront, with four (count ?em) parking ramps within a block of the proposed store. It seems to me we already tried, in an overreaction to suburban flight, to bring a suburban model to downtown. It is called Main Place Mall, the retail-comatose monolith on Main Street.
? And, grimmest of ironies, we may spend ? depending on how you add it ? between $25 million and $95 million taxpayer dollars on a Bass Pro development that may hurt more than it helps us.
The recently created Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., led by Sabres executive Larry Quinn, cut the proposed Bass Pro deal behind closed doors. It undercut a history-based, public-shaped plan not just in place, but in progress.
?I have a big problem with the process,? said Buffalo Common Council Member Mike LoCurto. ?We have a plan done with community input, then this [development corporation] board overrides it.?
The arrogance is overwhelming. The desperation is palpable. It must be Buffalo.
