I wasn’t able to catch the discussion last night before the Lansing City Council about the proposal to use $440,000 of taxpayers’ money to fund a move and expansion of the upscale downtown Troppo restaurant.
I’m grateful to the Lansing State Journal for giving the basic facts of the story. But what about the discussion before the City Council? What questions did they ask? What information did they and the city administration provide to help city residents understand it better?
Will the city of Lansing (MI) get back $440,000 in value for the move and expansion?
I’m just curious and thinking ahead to when I pay my property taxes.
UPDATE: Here’s a profile of Kris Elliott, the owner of Troppos, from the Greater Lansing Business Monthly.
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3 responses so far ↓
steve // November 18, 2008 at 10:43 pm |
I think I’d do a little more research on where that fund comes from before making such assumptions that it comes from your property taxes.
Wes Thorp // November 18, 2008 at 10:52 pm |
Steve–
Thanks for the comment.
I’m not assuming it comes from property taxes.
But, as a resident of the city, I know that Lansing City Hall, especially the Mayor and the Lansing City Council can pick winners and losers.
That will certainly affect my attitude when I pay my taxes.
I certainly support wise decisions and this could be one of them. As a citizen, I’m anxious to learn more, but specific information is hard to find.
By the way, do you know where that revolving fund comes from?
Wes Thorp
steve // November 18, 2008 at 11:35 pm |
Well, first off, its a loan… so yes, the city will be getting that back + interest.
No I don’t know the specifics on where the fund originated, however, in seeing how these loans have been done in the past, they seem to be fully collateralized and the applicants are fully qualified. Its not picking winners and losers, its security… would you want to loan your money to a low risk person or a high risk person?
Since its a “revolving loan” it means that this money “revolves” i.e. comes back, so they can do more loans in the future (only bigger, because of the interest collected)… thats putting money back into our community to help support investors and entrepreneurs. When available credit and investment are everything but scarce, making good loans for quality investments only begets further investment… which is something we need right now.