A Publicly Traded, Major Midland Employer and Downtown Tenant has moved its Headquarters and nobody seems to have noticed, for almost a YEAR. At least I can't find any stories in the MRT Archives, nor is there any indication the Economic Development Folks tried to step in and retain those jobs.

So which Company am I talking about, and when did they move?

I'm talking about United Fuel & Energy (previously know as Eddins Walcher), which used to have its headquarters at 405 N. Marienfeld 3rd Floor. From the best I can gather the move of their headquarters took place around the first of September of 2008. I say this because on the Company site an investors news release from August 14, 2008 is datelined Midland, Texas, and an investors news release dated September 17, 2008 is datelined Orange, California.

In the only story I could find in the MRT Archives, Jeff Haas, VP of marketing had this is say in June 2007.

The aforementioned growth not only is moving United toward economies of scale in product purchase, it is pushing them toward being one of the larger area employers. Across its operating area United employs 310 people, with 50 of them in its headquarters building on Marienfeld. Haas said, "Our other goal, in addition to being like Fed-Ex, is to become a premier employer in this area -- a preferred destination. We have lots of opportunities here, lots of new jobs," especially as the company continues acquisitions.

That reads like a Economic Developer's Dream.

However, shortly after that glowing report on company and employee growth, centered in Midland, United Fuel & Energy got a new partner who bought a 52% majority share of the company. In June 2008 he was installed as CEO, and in today's June 1, 2009 edition of the Orange County Business Journal, (which tipped me to this story) the new owner had this to say:

Since making the move, Greinke says he's found a suitable chief financial officer and controller, which he struggled to do in Texas. Greinke, who had been United Fuel's chairman and majority owner, became chief executive in June.

Since moving United Fuel, Greinke's hired about 20 at its headquarters. The company counts about 100 workers locally and about 250 company wide.

Ouch. I guess Midland doesn't grow CFO's anymore.

I highly doubt the MDC could have helped retain United Fuel & Energy, since the new owner is a California Native, with family running parts of the business, so why wouldn't he move the company close to home? I guess the MDC is going to have to modify their Major Midland Employers listing, I doubt they have 100 Midland employees and 175 Permian Basin Employees now.

...after Theo's post below, of course.

There are problems in health insurance cost and coverage, but not in the quality of care and the innovation instinct, and the Democrats are going to kill the latter in the fruitless quest for improvements to the former.

Above quote pulled from Hugh Hewitt's article at Town Hall, found here. Get fired up. Call or write somebody in Congress. Hugh has a great suggestion of where to start.

And this is from Politico:

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama landed in New York Saturday afternoon, and after taking a helicopter from JFK into Manhattan, drove up the West Side Highway, where the northbound lanes were shut down by police for their visit, past Ground Zero, into the Village for dinner at the Village's Blue Hill restaurant. From there, they went north to Times Square, where they went to to see a production of "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at the Belasco Theater on West 44 Street.

Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest read a statement from Obama: "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished."

Asked about the cost of the trip, which Republicans have criticized as indulgent, coming just ahead of the expected announcement of GM's bankruptcy filing on Monday, Josh Earnest told pool reporter Dave Michaels of the Dallas Morning News, that he "didn't anticipate being able to provide a cost estimate tonight."

Well, I'll be happy to provide an estimate the day after: Half a mil, easy.

Barack said he'd compensate the White House budget with the price of 2 round trip tickets, Washington to JFK. Go read the whole article to get a feel for the indulgence of our queen and king. Two C-5s or C-17s to move the motorcade to NYC, 3 helicopters on each end, lost time and overtime for NYC's police and firefighters, plus lost time for the residents (citizens and voters) stuck in traffic or detoured.

The cost of the Gulfstreams (plural), used as Air Force One and for hauling staff for this short flight, will be the least of the costs. It will be the only cost mentioned in the MSM, if at all, and expect our president to be applauded therein for his frugality and environmental consciousness for not using the 747s this time.

Hat Tip for both articles to Instapundit, who seems himself to be growing tired of the "fierce moral urgency" arguments of the administration. I know I am WAY past tired.

The postman rang. He didn't have to twice; I was on the lookout for him. He handed the box to me and when I saw it was from Amazon, my heart soared like Olympic doves. "Could it be? Is it possible?"

"Theocritus," I chid myself, "don't set yourself up for a fall. What if it isn't The Book?"

But the package was the right weight and size. I hurried to my office, clutching the box close to my heart. I felt...something. Some disturbance in the cosmic membrane. It had to be here. Fate would not be so cruel to tease me this way. It had to be here. I had to be holding the book.

I put the box on the desk and sank into my chair--my knees were weak with anticipation. Taking a deep breath to slow my pounding heart, I fumbled to get my letter opener. Shaking, I slit the tape on the ends and across the top, in practiced swipes. By this time my hands were shaking and I knew I might hurt myself if I didn't get control.

I stood, unsteadily, like a man who has seen a vision, and walked around my desk three times. "Theocritus," I chid myself, "if it's not in this day's post, it will come in the next day's post. And you've lived your life without it so far."

My inner Doppelganger answered back, "Yeah, right. But before 2008 you weren't really alive, were you, sucker? It had better be here."

I sat at the desk again, and prized apart the box top, and removed the inflated plastic pillow. And then I saw it:

Hat tip to Best of the Web Today's James Taranto, article posted on the 26th. Below blockquote is pulled from Taranto, in case the BotWT is not accessible.

Elizabeth Turnbell, a little, teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, weenie 24-year-old graduate student at Yale, built a little, teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, weenie house in New Haven, Conn., to limit "her impact on the environment," Fox News reports in a story titled "Student Builds Tiny House With Big Sustainability."

There's just one little, teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, weenie problem: The floor, the windows, even the ceilings were all donated by contractors and others looking to lend a hand.

"It was incredible, I couldn't have built it by myself," Turnbull said. "I kind of put feelers out and was like, 'Hey, I'm building this thing, and if you have cast-off stuff I'd love to use it.' " She uses the bathroom of a neighbor who has also allowed her to keep the micro-dwelling based in the backyard.

So it's totally "sustainable" except for the building materials, land and use of a bathroom, for all of which she depends on people who are living normal, environmentally unfriendly lives. She might as well move back in with her parents.

If you made this stuff up, no one would believe it. Here is the Fox article in it's entirety. And I wonder about New Haven's zoning that would allow for someone to "keep" another house in their backyard.

At what point did the number of reporters, shock jocks, columnists, activists and any other number of publicity whores who have voluntarily undergone waterboarding exceed the number of actual terrorists who were waterboarded by the Eeeeeevvvvvvillllll Bush Administration?

1) There apparently exists a proposed budget for the entirely tax supported MDC that will be submitted to the City Council for approval.

2) There is almost certainly a budget for MOTRAN also.

3) The last three "Annual Reports" available for download from the MDC's web site contain no formal information (income statements and balance sheets) concerning the finances of the MDC.

The MDC has spent a lot of money on it's web site and even more on consultants recommending transparency and improved communications. City Council members promised over a year ago that communication and transparency needed to be and would be improved.

A good start would be for the MDC to make available on their web site for viewing by their investors a complete set of financial statements dating back to its creation. Not summaries, but true and complete statements. The kind that investors would expect in any other "investment".

This is not asking a lot of the MDC staff. This is not information that needs to be gathered or tabulated. These detailed financial statements already exist and can be converted into a downloadable format and posted on the MDC's website within an hour or less.

Certainly in less time than it takes to cross post a comment on every blog in town.

Is there any reason that this cannot or should not be done? If there are, I would like to hear them.

"And the political realm in turn fed money back into the scientific community. By the late 1990's, lots of jobs depended on the idea that carbon emissions caused global warming. Many of them were bureaucratic, but there were a lot of science jobs created too. I was on that gravy train, making a high wage in a science job that would not have existed if we didn't believe carbon emissions caused global warming.

Global Warming™ is nothing but one Current Truth; the Current Truth is defined not by what is in fact true but by what it is expedient to believe because some pressure groups with leverage demand it, and therefore the Current Truth is nearly axiomatically defined to be a lie. When the Current Truth intersects the true truth, which exists without egos or money, it is only happenstance. But the true truth--how sad to have to qualify "truth"--doesn't fund fellowships or research grants or posh symposia on Bali or even the rubber-chicken circuit. The true truth has no room for egos and tax lice with interested motives. Or hack pseudo-scientists like Nicholas Stern, who delivered himself of a report on Global Warming™ which is much loved by Tony Blair. And which was, like most of the "literature" of these other green alarmists, not peer-reviewed and is therefore pamphleteering and alarmist rubbish. Nigel Lawson rubbishes Stern here. It is obvious that the Current Truth is always a religion and Stern is cashing in on it, like the Holy Gore. And it is a Sin to doubt it.

I really enjoy having Mayor Wes Perry in the blogosphere. If you can tolerate open comments there can be some great education and debate that goes on within these little digital bits.

I'm not going to dispute the reasons for the Council Approving the BASIC deal, I never had a doubt it was going to happen, I just like for the communicaiton to be complete and the facts to be, well, factual.

Twice in the last couple of days City Council Members have made a mis-leading statement. Mayor Perry makes it again today in his blog:

When complete this could be the highest valued property in downtown and a major step in the process of revitalizing downtown. On top of that, increasing the taxable values of such buildings shifts some of tax burden from residential property owners to business property owners.

Seeing as how the Council just voted to spend the TIRZ money on the Centennial Plaza redevelopment, I don't know how they don't remember that all property valuation increases in the TIRZ (Central Business District) above 2001 levels are captured by the TIRZ until 2031. There will be no more property tax dollars generated for the general budgets for the City, County, Hospital, or College until the TIRZ is abolished or expires.

So, while there is more property tax collection from the Central Business District, there is no means to turn that into reduced property taxes, because at its heart the TIRZ's mission is to increase spending on Downtown, not shift the property tax burden back to downtown....at least until 2031.

As was expected, the City Council has approved the Midland Development Corporation's recommendation to subsidize with public funds the construction of a parking garage for Basic Energy Services' Permian Place real estate development.

Up until this point I had been pretty much convinced that the Midland Development Corporation was purchasing with our tax dollars no marginal utility whatsoever for either the taxpayers of Midland nor the development of downtown.

After all, the new and purportedly much needed parking facility will sit directly across the street from the single largest parking structure in all of Midland, the Wells Fargo parking garage. With a walkthrough of the Wells Fargo parking garage any weekday afternoon you can count over 150 empty parking spaces, not including the entire roof.

Within a block or two to the north or northwest of the the proposed Permian Place garage sit a couple of large, essentially empty parking lots.

The Permian Place tenants themselves would require a parking facility but the developers had already incorporated that into their plans for the site, albiet a smaller garage.

What it comes down to is that there was no demand signal at all from the market for additional public parking at this location. There was only a recommendation from hired consultants for increased infrastructure in the downtown central business district.

So what marginal utility did the MDC get for spending $2,000,000 of tax money?

Was it the catalyst for the project in the first place? Or did it help revive a stalled project? The answer to both of these questions is obviously no.

Basic Energy Services would have gone ahead with its $15 million "Permian Plaza" project downtown without the Midland Development Corp.'s $2 million incentive, but the 440 space parking garage would have been smaller and would not have included public parking, Basic CEO-President Ken Huseman said Tuesday after the Midland City Council approved the contract.

[snip]

"We knew what we were getting into cost-wise and didn't go into it assuming we would get any development money; but the incentive allows us to make the garage a little bigger and provide parking for downtown."

In short, the only thing that we got for our $2,000,000 is some additonal public parking for which there is no market demand.

Now this subsidy does come with some strings attached.

Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Vice President Mike Hatley said the MDC's requirement for Basic to retain at least 50 jobs -- about half of its current staffing level -- was less important than the company's investment in infrastructure.

Draconian, huh?

Moving down the article some more....

The plan calls for the modernization of Basic's headquarters at 511 W. Ohio Ave., to be called "Permian Two," the influx of retail stores and restaurants at the new "Permian One" in the Hightower Building at 600 W. Illinois Ave. and parking garage where the old Pecos, or "Belt Buckle," Building stood at 300 N. Pecos St.

Wait a minute....did the planners of Permian Place anticipate an influx of retail stores and restaurants but decide not to provide any parking in their facility for them, or is it just hoped that the additional parking spaces that the MDC just spent $2,000,000 on will now cause them to appear in Permian One?

Finally, this is either a misquote or a total disconnect from Mr. Huseman's quote above:

"The big thing was getting a $15 million redevelopment project going," [Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Vice President Mike] Hatley said. "It will be valued much higher than what the taxpayers pay and we'll be getting rid of the dilapidated old Belt Buckle Building. Even if Basic were bought out, those improvements will be there regardless of what happens."

Mr. Huseman is quoted in the beginning of the article that the project would have gone on with no involvement from the MDC. All parties involved know this to be true. Which inherently means that, Mr. Hatley's comments regarding "what the taxpayers pay" notwithstanding, the MDC's and the Council's actions have actually decreased the return to the taxpayers on Permian Place by exactly the amount of the handout.

"We'll be getting rid of the old Belt Buckle Buckle Building."

Referring to the Belt Buckle Building as if it still stands is just....I can't even think of a word for it. And there is no "we" here. Neither the MDC nor the taxpayers had a hand in getting rid of the Belt Buckle Building. Basic Energy Services (much to their credit) is 100% responsible for that and any language or narrative that infers otherwise is a ham-fisted misappropriation of credit.

Godspeed, Basic Energy Services, may your development downtown prove wildly succesful.

For what it is worth, Basic is a good company with good people, and if we are to be handing out what are essentially cash prizes and tribute then they may as well get some of it.

The old RSS feeder for Midland went off and I was quite surprised at this entry at the Environmentally centered Salsa Verde Blog at the Austin American Statesman:

"We need to move away from coal, not give incentives for cleaner coal," Cyrus Reed, who lobbies for Sierra Club, told me. "That being said there are good aspects to bill, like looking for a way for plants to capture and store carbon dioxide, and a verification system to make sure that happens."

He also said Sierra Club could change to "neutral" on the bill if its authors adopt more stringent carbon dioxide and particulate matter emissions.

Meanwhile, Environmental Defense Fund is in favor of the bill.

The blog also says Summit has swayed the support of anti-TXU coal plant, and former Dallas Mayor, Laura Miller.

Laura Miller, who had served as mayor of Dallas, where she fought coal plants proposed by TXU in 2007, is now lobbying on behalf of Summit Power for the bill. Summit has a coal gasification plant proposed for the Midland-Odessa area: It stands to get $100 million in tax breaks from Texas if the bill goes through.

Somebody pinch me.

New enterprise in Washington.

The nation is drinking the most expensive Kool-Aid in the history of the world.

I wish that people would take advantage of our open meetings to participate and take their information from. During this recent meeting, there was not even press present. We had a presentation to show that would have addressed so much of the questions that are floating around, and yet there was no one outside the City representatives, MDC board, and MDC employess there to see it. In the same way that you want your questions answered, I have to ask, why is it my responsibility to com[e] to questioning blogs when no one comes to our meetings?

The quote which titles this post comes from §552.001 of the Texas Government Code, AKA the Texas Public Information Act, and is presented in a prominent box on the Comptroller's Texas Transparency Check-Up Website.

On February 26, 2009, Comptroller Susan Combs, published an article on the importance of "Transparency." In this article is the answer to "...why is it my responsibility to come to the questioning blogs..." posed by LRoman:

We in Texas must do better about shedding light on finances, and our government entities must work proactively. While there are no angry shareholders or investors to complain, we are accountable to the taxpayers who fill state coffers with their hard-earned dollars. I would argue that while lack of transparency can lead to serious financial losses, the opposite effect holds when shedding light on expenditures.
...
Beyond the state level, Texans have the right to inspect the books of the various government entities, such as schools, cities, counties or any other quasi-governmental entities, such as electric co-ops. Some would argue that it is too expensive to make the information available, but I believe it is too expensive not to do so.
...
We stand ready to help local governments post information, since we believe so strongly in its vital importance.

The problem with the MDC leadeship, is that history shows they have been reactive (or non-responsive) to the public critism of the MDC's operation and not proactive.

From what little we can cobble together from published reports and the occasional budget we have obtained through other citizens who have filed TPIA requests (and sent us the files), the MDC has spent at least $250,000 on web assets and on web/communicaiton consultants. Yet, the leadership of MDC only sees these assets as "marketing for the community" and not a platform for accountability. Why can't it be both?

It isn't like the data we seek to have available online doesn't already exist. LRoman said there was a presentation to show. Why not post it instead of letting the community speculate on incomplete/inacurate media reports? Why aren't all MDC agendas archived and linked on the website? Why aren't MDC minutes (the ones regarding the public portions) posted on the MDC Website? Why isn't the MDC budget posted, or the annual audits? Why aren't these monthly reports on the various opprotunity zones posted? (You seem to be able to post the Economic Report).

Items of this nature are already on the City of Midland Website, should we expect any less from a City Controlled Entity?

Maybe, at the least, we could expect the MDC to take the advice of their consultants in November 2007?

The State of Texas and the Comptroller have thrown down the Transparency gauntlet to local and quasi-governmental entities. The MDC has the web assets to pick up the challenge, but are they proactive enough to implement it?

UPDATE by Site Admin: Case in point: The latest "Monthly Report" from the Midland Development Corporation contains in its entirety two pages of republished information from the Texas Workforce Commission. Essentially then, The MDC...a quasi-governmental agency that takes $4,000,000 out of the local economy each and every year issues as it's monthly report to the public what may as well be a link to the Texas Workforce Commission's website.

Councilman Dufford is correct when he says that the $2,000,000 public subsidy that (in all probability) is going to be made to Basic Energy Services' Permian Place real estate play is better than paying companies "a couple of million dollars to locate here" in that at least we get a parking garage out of the deal.

But then creating infrastructure is not the hard part. Creating demand is the hard part and totally out of the control of our local (and any other, to be fair) development corporation.

The Midland Development Corporation has created infrastructure before. And they even did it in one of the Genuine Out-Of-Town Consultant Recommended Opportunity Zones. The result is a shell of a building that sits empty after almost three years having never even found a single occupant.

This subsidy will be approved and the taxpayers of Midland will become "partners" in the construction of a parking garage in the exact same sense that taxpayers have become "partners" with GM, Chrysler, Bank of America, etc.

But enough about the garage itself. As has been pointed out before, it does not matter if the subsidy was for a parking structure or if it was for updated air handlers and electrical.

What needs to be focused on is what the money is actually for: Currying favor with Basic Energy Services in the hope that they will keep their corporate headquarters in Midland.

For the sake of argument let us stipulate that a $2,000,000 subsidy is what keeps Basic Energy Services' (a company that as late as last October was able to scrounge up $61 million dollars in cash to buy up another company) corporate HQ in Midland. (I realize that 7 months makes a lot of difference, but there is something about a company that can swallow up whole other companies using cash while simultaneously pleading poverty to the taxpayers of Midland for help in finishing out their parking garage that is an eye-roller of the first order.)

Question: What keeps them here? For the "incentive" to actually have worked inherently means that it caused a company to forego a previous decision about the most economically advantageous location in favor of a less optimal location. In effect, the subsidy theoretically makes up the difference between the most optimal location and the less optimal location, in this case Midland.

Obviously, it can only do this for a limited period of time and that amount of time is determined by the size of the subsidy. So how meaningful is this $2,000,000 subsidy to an oilfield behemoth like Basic Energy Services in terms of having them forego for a time moving their corporate HQ to Houston?

Besides additional subsidies, what keeps Basic Energy Services here? Do any supporters of this subsidy have an answer to this question?

We are Kelly and Jen, and we are not Communists.

We are just two girls who went to Cuba and fell in love with Che. This is our story. Before we went to Cuba, we didn't know one another. We had some things in common, though, that ensured our friendship before we met. We shared an off-beat sense of humor and a love of travel.

This is from chespotting.com

Their mission is to travel and see Che all over the world, and they invite other people to take a picture of Che and send it in.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara is a hero of virtually all leftist movements--he was a dedicated Marxist and murderer, but I repeat myself. After being second in command in the Castro revolution, and being commandant of a Cuban prison where he thought nothing of the odd execution, he then tried to export Marxist revolution around the world. Way to go, Che--100,000,000 deaths and counting and you'd like to add some more.

The only reason that this thug is remembered is the photo by Alberto Korda, and it was enough to get these two silly, foolish and spoiled girls to dedicate themselves to the mission of traveling the world, to snap pictures of the most iconic murderer in history.

If these silly girls had not lead easeful lives they might have had the sense to look behind the photo to the monster underneath, the man who wanted to overthrow everything that made their lives possible. These women define "useful idiot."

We may be very thankful that Hitler didn't look like Brad Pitt or silly people would have refused to fight him.

Dude, just because you have a job where your absence would not only go unnoticed it would be better for everyone if you never showed up at all, doesn't mean that everyone else does.

Charles Krauthammer is the most intelligent of all commentators on television; he can say more in two sentences than you get in the rest of the program.

Finally he had a bellyful of President Obama's hate-America European tour. His O'liness descended, as you know, from the clouds into Europe and then proclaimed that America is just not respectful enough to Europe. Here's a partial transcription of Krauthammer's remarks:

Obama says, "In America there is a failing to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world."

Maybe that's because when there was a civil war on Europe's door step, in the Balkans, and genocide, it didn't lift a finger until America led.

Maybe it's because when there was an invasion of Kuwait, it didn't lift a finger until America led.

Maybe it's because with America spending over half a trillion a year keeping open the sea lanes and defending the world, Europe is spending pennies on defense.

It's hard to appreciate an entity's leading role in the world when it's been sucking on your tit for 60 years as Europe has, regarding the United states, as Europe has, parasitically.

Go, Charles.

Ostensibly, the $2,000,000 subsidy by the taxpayers is to be given over to Basic Energy Services for use on the Permian Place real estate venture's parking garage. We know this because the MDC's press release regarding the subsidy waxed eloquent about said parking garage and how it addresses a long term need for the central business district. That up to 75 of these supposedly highly sought after parking spaces would be available to non-Permian Place residents was treated as some sort of coup. Better yet, almost all of the parking facility would be made available "by arrangement" (whatever that means) after business hours.

Well, below is what the top three floors of the ginormous parking garage directly across the street looks like during business hours so I am unconvinced that the 75 daytime parking spaces provide any real utility to anyone other than the owners of Permian Plaza. And what would ever (ever!) be the cause for after hours demand over and above the those 75 spaces?

So was the Midland Development Corporation just uncomfortable with the idea of selling this subsidy to the taxpayers based only on the idea that Basic is a great corporate citizen of Midland (they are) and that if they threw $2,000,000 at them it might help keep the remaining 50 jobs here in town?

In other words, what if Basic/Permian Plaza had come to the MDC asking for the $2,000,000 so that they could update the air handlers, re-wire the electrical systems, and re-configure the floors to make them more attractive to renters? Is there any doubt that the subsidy would have still been forthcoming?

Today's MRT story has a lot of comments from the MDC Board that brings the reasons for incenting a parking garage downtown into sharper focus. Maybe it is a case of "mis-rembering", or "mis-quoting," but several things in the story don't add up with previous reports, statements and timeline. If it isn't mis-remembering, then there was a lot of dis-information going on last year:

Let's start with this one:

MDC Directors Laura Roman and David Mims said Wednesday that Basic President-CEO Ken Huseman and other leaders came to the economic development arm of the Midland Chamber of Commerce in February 2008 after their board had declined a merger offer and faced key decisions about the company's future.

A Couple of timeline things. BASIC didn't announce their merger with Grey Wolf until April 2008, and the deal didn't fall through until July 2008. It is kind of hard to say the incentive came in the wake of a declined merger that hasn't been announced yet. Now there was a meeting in January 2008, but all indications from Mr. Henson with the MDC in published reports was that BASIC wasn't seeking money at that time from the MDC, they were just generating publicity for their project (like any other real estate developer):

"I bet (Basic Energy) didn't intend to be in the real estate business," MDC Director Doug Henson said. "It shows confidence that it is good to invest in downtown Midland.

"Basic Energy has stepped up to the plate and I think this will be a catalyst for the downtown area."

This is the first privately driven project in the city's move to revitalize downtown, Henson said. He said Basic's presentation was for informational purposes.

So what is the true sequence of events?

The sequencing in the MRT Story seems to imply the Permian Plaza project wasn't going to go forward back in February 2008, but things seemed to change from this quote:

With the forgiveable loan in hand, they decided to spend another $13 million to modernize their current 511 W. Ohio Ave. headquarters, to be called "Permian Two," upgrade the Hightower Building on Illinois and build a 440-space parking garage where the Pecos, or "Belt Buckle," Building had been razed at 300 N. Pecos St., Roman and Mims said.

So there was a forgivable loan deal in hand when? February 2008? What about this quote from September 2008 which seems to indicate the MDC had the City Attorney scower the 4A law to see how to incent stuff like this, and by September they had just figured out how to do it.

MDC officials currently in the process of developing a criteria that projects must fit to qualify for the incentive.

City Attorney Keith Stretcher said that the 4A corporation can provide a parking lot incentive under the purview of its ordinance.

"Parking is not a project under the 4A corporation," Stretcher said. "But just like infrastructure, the MDC is allowed under a provision to spend for site development needed for a new or expanding business enterprise."

So was an agreement in principle done in February 2008? Is this why this incentive has has taken 15 months to draw up?

And about retaining job at Basic's HQ. I have already linked the July 2008 story after Basic and Grey Wolf called off the merger. In that story Basic's HQ in Midland was quoted as having 100 employees.

How is making Basic retain 50 jobs (a 50% reduction from previous levels) a real retention goal?

Besides the timeframe of the Grey Wolf merger, when else has Basic considered moving to Houston?

What about all those quotes that even if Basic moved to Houston, this was still a great real estate play and they were moving forward regardless? This story implies the project *might not have happened* without the MDC.

They said they did not know if Basic would have proceeded without the MDC money. "I can't put words into Basic's mouth, but they were getting close to the end of their contract and (with MDC's incentive) they could do this without having to go back to their board about continuing the plaza project," Roman said.

We will continue to build out the property. We expect at some point to sell the property to a firm that specializes in developing and managing such properties.

(I still think this aspect of the deal is wrapped up in the nationwide credit crisis on real estate lending, because last year this was a $10M project, now it is $15M and lending is frozen.)

As for this push back from MDC members:

When asked if downtown already had enough parking, Roman conceded the nearby Fasken Center and other buildings have garages but said another is needed. "Sometimes I think people who make comments like that don't work downtown," she said.

It should be said, this blogs critisim of the project has never dealt with need for downtown parking, it has always centered on Why is MDC investing in Parking that is essientially for a lone office complex, regardless of the other goals this garage is supposed to meet. I mean we are spending about $2M in public funds on Centennial Plaza, so one would assume that is the center of the Downtown Revitialization so why say a project is so great for all of downtown when it is isolated from the advertised heart?

The MDC is trying to dress this pig all up, but the clothes aren't fitting too well.

At this point, all I really want is for the complete and concise *facts* about the timeline and decision making regarding this deal to come out so the City Council can make an informed decision on the MDC's actions. We don't need our Council making decisions on what amounts to Chamber Spin.

I am not saying that they will, but what if they did? Does the development cease? Does it continue as a totally private venture as was orginally planned?

Given the series of events this looks more like a bailout than an incentive package.

Nonetheless, if the city council decides against subsidizing Basic's parking garage, what happens then?

At the link is Alfonzo Rachel's latest "ZoNation" from Pajamas Media, a favorite of Theo's and mine as well. It is a brief and enlightening view of the relationship between producer/taxpayer and looter/government.

Here is The Link. Enjoy.

...you could probably give yourself a pre-frontal lobotomy with a screwdriver that's accidentally been dropped in the toilet and come off more coherent than Joe Biden.

It seems that Our Vice President was at least 125% more Biden-ish than usual this weekend while giving the commencement address you haven't heard about. Read the whole thing here and here. And laugh out loud.

It would be a lot funnier if this guy was not a Wagu-Beef-induced heart attack away from sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office.

The Law of Unintended Consequences and just why the government should leave real estate development to the private sector....all wrapped up in one cavernous shell of a building.

But since this all happens in an area where there are no penalties for failure and good ideas remain undifferentiated from bad ones and, anyway, it's other peoples' money...there is no feedback loop to keep it from happening over and over again.

Which is why the first big idea of the New! And! Improved! Midland Development Corporation that was promised is to spend $2,000,000 to help build a parking garage directly across the street from the largest parking garage in Midland (and a block away from another large one) in the name of "economic development".

It's failure to produce any tangible benefit to anyone other than the rent-seeking "clients" of the MDC will produce only what other failures have: A shrug of the shoulders, a promise to work smarter, not harder (or some similar manner of word salad that the consulting and developing classes always seems to emit) and then a total repeat of the process.

If you are a fan of State of the Art Word Salad you can download the MDC's 2007/2008 Annual Report here. Normally, annual reports include details on the finances of an organization, but not here.

There is such as thing as too much communication and transparency, I guess.

UPDATE: A question for the Great Os: In the MDC's Annual Report there is a table showing "Other Projects Funded" on page 28 that shows that MOTRAN has been given $351,000 in "incentives" by the MDC. To me this looks like one Chamber entity just flat out funding another Chamber entity, if not technically, then essentially. How do you see this?

Mayor Wes Perry has entered into the blogosphere with a blog hosted over at MyWestTexasChatter.com.

Question: Is the Midland Development Corporation shelling out $2,000,000 to build a big parking garage directly across the street from another big parking garage? Both of which are four blocks away and on the opposite side of Big Spring street from the downtown square?

UPDATE:

Unless this $2,000,000 parking garage is going to be placed somewhere separate from the two buildings that Basic Energy Services has acquired (Hightower bldg. and 511 W. Ohio) then the proposed structure will indeed be right across the street from another big parking garage.

And not just any big parking garage, either. The single largest parking garage in all of Midland.

And if this is the case, then how can the MDC make an argument that spending this $2,000,000 provides any additional utility at all for non-Basic Energy Services employees? In reality, if you were to choose a location guaranteed to have the least marginal gain in utility as far as downtown parking for the general citizenry it would be this one.

Click here for a Google Maps view of downtown Midland.

Take a look for yourself and decide what kind of retail and/or food service establishments are likely to spring up in the 500 and 600 blocks of Illinois or Ohio streets.

Ask yourself why the taxpayers need to provide a $2,000,000 "incentive" to a company that has been working on this site for over a year now.

And if you get the chance, ask a Councilman what would change if they were to vote to not approve the MDC's request.

It's $2,000,000 dollars for a State of the Art parking garage. Which is waaaaaay different.

And if you haven't been witness to the advances in parking garage technology and design over the past few years then you are in for a real treat.

So powerful are these State of the Art design techniques that as far as the sheer power of an empty parking space to draw Midlanders downtown the roughly 75 spaces that will be made available for use by non-Basic Energy employees are really kind of overkill.

Care must be taken, though. I have heard stories of a parking garage in Minneapolis that was so well designed that it turned out to have no economic impact whatsoever because, while it was always full, people never actually left their cars instead choosing to remain in the garage just to experience it.

I can only imagine what might happen if they were to combine this with, say, a state of the art interactive fountain.

And dare I hope that there will be state of the art curb cuts and crosswalk paint?

A parking garage four blocks from the soon to be revamped (and more interactive!) Centennial Plaza. Because, you see, what is really holding Midland's dowtown area back is a lack of parking spaces.

The MDC Board has approved this. We will have to wait and see if the City Council is smoking crack approves it.

Hat Tip to Newsroom Stew who has the press release right now. You will be able to get the press release at the MDC's own website within about four months.

Here is a mental exercise: Try to remember all of the campaign ads and literature put out by the ED Sales Tax proponents on what was going to be done with the money in the name of economic diversification.

Now....in your head, re-write them with what has actually been done with the money.

"We will help guarantee Midland's future by purchasing parking garages for local oil economy-based companies!"

This is fraud, pure and simple. It is time to sunset this dog.

On a Saturday afternoon, in Washington, D. C., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's aide visited the Cardinal of the Catholic cathedral. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's sermon, and he asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint.

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over certain of Pelosi's views. Pelosi's aide then said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to your church if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint.

The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon." As Pelosi's aide promised, House Speaker Pelosi appeared for the Sunday sermon and =seated herself prominently at the edge of the main aisle. And, during the sermon, as promised, the Cardinal pointed out that House Speaker Pelosi was present.

Then the Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation -- "While Speaker Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, she is not my favorite person. Some of her views are contrary to those of the church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other views. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is
also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money, to a man who is obviously blind and deaf, and is using it to lie to the American people. She also has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington, and in California. She simply is not to be trusted."

The Cardinal completed his view of Pelosi with, "But, when compared to Senators Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and John Kerry, House Speaker Pelosi is a saint.

With the passing of Midland Memorial Hospital's ridiculous and gargantuan bond issue on Saturday, my wife and I -- for the first time since we settled here after college -- are actually talking about whether or not moving to a neighboring county and commuting would be a viable option in the long run.

Frankly, I personally have had it up to my eyeballs with the emotional, collectivist voting habits of Midlanders. Since the '90s, I've suffered through elections that have burdened us all with rotting civic carcasses such as the failed sports complex, the failed Economic Development Corporation, expansion of the local prison-industrial complex, and the repeated propping-up of the local government school system -- all of them among various and sundry other forehead-slapping efforts over the years aimed at turning Midland into a Mini-Dallas.

All of them things we're still generally paying for, by the way.

Now, sitting upon the darkening horizon, is a county hospital expansion that effectively works out to a million dollars per new bed. For what? So Medicaid patients can continue to be pushed out of the facility after three days? So the MMH West Campus can continue to sit mostly empty? So more million-dollar executive bonuses can be handed out? I'm not clear on the urgency of this purported need, and even if so, certainly not at a whopping $115 million, the single largest bond issue in Midland history.

Someone please tell me, is there anything Midlanders won't vote for for? We got lucky and dodged the tax bullet once on the single failed school bond I can think of a few years ago. But with that exception, it seems Midlanders generally refuse to say no to new taxes. In fact, they rather seem to love them, if the current landslide bond passage is any indication. $115 million has just been handed over to an entity that has proven itself to be fiscally irresponsible on multiple occasions with no change in sight, and all during a severe economic recession, no less. It's astounding.

So I ask you all, how long before taxation becomes total? How long before government, taxing entities, and the social engineers who represent them have complete control? Or will we, as a citizenry, at some point decide the line has been crossed and stand up for our property rights, disallowing new taxes (no matter what they're for) until it is all once again constrained to the constitutional proportions set forth in the now-lost vision of our founders.

Or does that line even exist? For their empty promises of care, amenity, convenience, and succor, will we hand over all to our insatiable taxing masters?

Is this what we have become?

Stanton is 15 minutes away and my car gets 42 miles per gallon. Unfortunately, Permian Basin home prices are currently so overvalued that I doubt I could sell and re-buy nearby to my fiscal advantage. In reality, I'll probably stay -- for now. But the seed of exodus has been planted, and will perhaps one day sprout if it is continued to be watered with the irresponsible, feel-good votes of the people of Midland County.

The Obama White House de-facto classifies photos of Air Force One taken while it was scaring the Hell out of New Yorkers.

Don't forget that this little photo op cost the taxpayers a cool $350,000.

And now they want to keep the photos from the public that paid for them.

Good luck with that.

On November 11 last I wrote an article for this blog about another organization, the National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB, which does itself well by pretending to do good.

I was inflamed by a joint commercial that they had made with the AARP, the biggest socialist organization in America today, excepting of course the Democrat party. And if the NFIB crawled into be with socialists, they are socialists. You lie down with the dogs, you get up with fleas.

I've hung up on the NFIB, insulted them, and read them the riot act. And when I returned from an errand, one of their vassals was here to use the fearmonger/promise/extort routine that is so successful, but no longer on me.

Surely he could tell I was shaking with anger as I told him about how they had lied about their intentions. Surely he could see that he would do no good here. But he still wanted to tell me of their recent successes.

Some years ago I had some training in breath control and know that the most impressive shouts are made from the diaphragm rather than the neck. I yelled, "Out!" and he went.

I heartily recommend throwing socialists out the door.