DL Open Thread: Fri., May 22, 2020
Stoopid RWNJ Trix. Steal a Coast Guard chopper, shoot out the power at a hospital, ‘liberate’ the patients, and ‘put everyone in quarantine’. No, it makes no sense, but he’s your typical Trump voter.
Stoopid RWNJ Candidate. One Jo Rae Perkins, who vowed support for QAnon, wins R primary for US Senate seat from Oregon. A lot of people think of Oregon as a liberal bastion and, in large part it is. But when you go east of the Cascades, it’s rural and it’s Trump country. Meaning, it’s the home of the Rethuglican Party in Oregon.
Trump Withdrawal From Open Skies Treaty. Idiotic and dangerous. If Biden wins, can you imagine the number of Executive Orders he will have to overturn?
Shale Oil Bust Slams Rural Counties. I’m struggling to empathize with these boom/bust operators. Could it be b/c DeWitt County, TX, one of the hardest-hit counties, gave Trump 80.6% of the vote in 2016? Yes.
Everything Falls Apart, Ctd. US. Global. The latest carnage: 1,577,758 confirmed cases and 94,729 deaths in the United States. 1400 more deaths yesterday. We’re seeing a bit of a decline in the deaths. We can only hope that there isn’t a second wave.
Delaware Revenue Projections Not As Bleak As Expected. In large part b/c job loss was disproportionately experienced by lower-paid workers. It’s likely that the adjusted figures will enable the General Assembly to pass a ‘kick-the-can down the road’ budget with little difficulty.
Delaware Nursing Homes Fail To Clear Low Bar. What a surprise. They’re not doing the mandated testing they are required to do. I’ve been writing about this awful industry for some time now. They won’t do anything unless they actually face strong sanctions. The lobbyists for these dirty providers claim (what else?) that they can’t do the testing unless the state and/or feds shower them with money. Shower them with sanctions instead.
What do you want to talk about?
Stoopid RWNJ Trix guy’s county went 63.1% for Trump.
These guys got everything. Why are they still so mad?
ONCE AGAIN TAXPAYERS ARE LEFT PAYING THE BILL
The grand opening of the newly constructed Wilmington transit hub is being celebrated as a success story for Delaware’s system of creating public/private partnerships.
Throughout my 14 years as a State Representative I have consistently questioned and challenged investment of taxpayer money in creating these public/private ventures.
In those cases where I’ve been able to access performance records, the results have been rather disturbing. In many instances these deals are announced as an investment of public money that will give the taxpayers more bang for the buck, enable private investors to more easily expand operations and create jobs all while promising a healthy return on investment to the taxpayer. Unfortunately the results of these types of speculation has been that the public has borne a preponderance of the investment obligation while the private sector partners have reaped most, if not all, of the rewards. In addition, in many of these deals the taxpayer portion has not been recovered and none of the profits have materialized in the public coffers.
A prime example of irresponsible waste of taxpayer resources can be noted in the Bloom Energy debacle. Although not strictly a public/private partnership, the Bloom investment of millions of taxpayer dollars and its ensuing contractual obligation, (of more than 20 years) placed squarely on ratepayers demonstrates the risk to the public that poorly thought out policy decisions can have. Delaware electricity customers will be forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars in surcharges to a private corporation with absolutely no return on their investment.
Today, the heralded opening of the Wilmington bus hub gives us another opportunity to examine the reality and unfulfilled promises that result from giving public funds to private investors. The state entered into an agreement with Transit Center LLC, an entity consisting of Colonial Parking, EDiS Co. and Emory Hill Real Estate Services Inc. The deal is purported to be a financial win for the state and according to the News Journal’s Karl Baker, a DelDot spokesperson claimed “a majority of the funding would come from the private sector who will recoup their costs through the parking revenues”.
A review of the information I have received regarding this project reveals a scant chance of recovery of taxpayer funds despite those public funds comprising a majority of the investment costs. The project appears to be another giveaway of taxpayer money to a private entity (LLC) with no chance of recovery of the investment or return on that investment. A brief summary of the situation follows:
Total expenses:
State: $10.4 million total
– 69% of $10 million construction cost
– $3.5 million environmental clean-up
– unaccounted cost of ROW, design work, and RFP
LLC: $3.1 million total
– 31% of $10 million construction cost
*Note that DelDOT’s John Sisson previously said a “majority of the funding would come from the private sector”, now it appears the state is spending over 77% of final costs
Total revenue:
State:
– every year, pay $50,000 to LLC
– first 25 years, no revenue at all
– after 25 years, 25% of net revenue, minus any negative net income from previous quarters
LLC:
– first 25 years, 100% of revenue
– after 25 years, 75% of net revenue
– every year, get paid $50,000 paid by state
*Note that DelDOT’s John Sisson has recently said that “this is a good deal” for the state, despite having no projections for the net income
Representative John Kowalko