Building 'A' of La Entrada Office Park: Still empty after almost three years
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?
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2 Comments
MOTRAN Funding is exactly like funding the Midland Chamber of Commerce. In fact, MOTRAN is the non-profit corporation set up by the Cities of Midland/Odessa, the Counties of Midland/Ector, the Economic Development Boards and the Chambers of each City to leverage State, Federal and NAFTA (Mexican) funds to perform feasibility/environmental studies, develop plans, and ultimately be the advocate to various governmental agencies for funding the various La Entrada Corridor projects.
It is a prime example of the concept that, end the end, local tax money is fungible between the various tax supported entities, they just get to show certain costs off their "own" budgets, though the money comes from the same tax base.
Though the region already has MOTOR, our regional transportation planning organization authorized by the 1962 Federal Aid Highway Act, they needed to create MOTRAN so they could do the advocacy (i.e. lobbying) part.
How does the Council feel about the building (a $4-5 million waste?) and why haven't some of those fiscal conservatives (Dufford) been more active in bringing common sense business principles to the MDC?
Are we going to continue and allow the Chamber to suck $1 million a year from the sales tax slush fund and then change its mission every four years so they can continue to say let's give the new plan time?
Give the MDC credit. They are good at making the Council look like a bunch of chumps. The council (including Dufford and Morgan) continue to buy it over and over. There's a difference between talking a big game and doing something about it. Some of these guys talked a big game about spending when they campaigned but they have done little to change it.
Isn't it time for the Council to step up and make the MDC accountable?