So much for sunshine . Back to business as usual .
Deny , deny , deny . "You say we made a gicky deal ! You lie ! How could you EVAH know ! YOU WEREN'T THERE !" yadda yadda yadda..same ol' same ol' !

Fulbright and Jaworski? Yeah, those guys are cheap.

We have more lawyers per capita than any town in the country save D.C. (Shepherd's semi-educated conjecture). There were no local hands that could handle the MDC's legal work? Am amazing waste. But sadly not unexpected.

The whole thing probably has to do with how to flip Walser's favorite vacant building to the green tire guys...we'll give you the building if you give us tires for the city fleet for the next 10 years...&c. Tax dollars for the land and building, tax dollars for the lawyers and council, tax dollars for MDC overhead and no tax dollars coming in from the tire recyclers.

What's not to like?

Hey Shep, you think F&J is a waste, the board is also going to hear a presentation from a CANADIAN based business marketing and matchmaking firm.

You had to know that "Out of Country" consultants were the next logical step beyond "Out of Town" and "Out of State."

You know about those lists that candidates sell to each other that generate mail wanting support (read "money")? Do you suppose there are lists to be bought by marketers/consultants/conmen that identify cities who use out-of-town "brains?"
I am all for hiring expertise....but only in hard stuff, like engineering.....not theoretical stuff that is so easily tailored to the original wishes of the hiring entity.
"Feasible?" "Of course! What do you want me to tell you it is a good idea to do?"

Well stated , Portia ! A tip and a sip to you !

In all fairness, he could be coming to advise the MDC on how to make Midland attractive to Canadian companies looking to relocate.

Let the jokes begin......

Ok Mr.S.A. ,how about the President of Business and Commerce of the Great Republic of Antarctica . Did I win anything?

I am new to your site and have not taken time to read a much about your ideals, but based on what people have told me, there are some of you that might agree with me.

Re the F&J & secret MDC/City Council meeting, today's paper stated that they are trying to use the tax abatement (thru MDC-our tax dollars) to assist in financing "Green Tires" out near the airport.

Second, we are facing major changes in our way-of-life due to the massive expansion being pushed by the CC/MDC at an accelerated rate. I've seen this happen before, to my chagrin, and want to know if anyone else agrees that we did not elect these people for this purpose nor vote for these changes. Also, can we get enough people to present a referendum or proposition to change our city laws so that we have more control over the council's business dealings?

Interesting...and welcome Buckshot . I have a house full of relatives at this moment and would like to get back to you later . I am sure a few of us will get to your

posting before then ! Until then and beyond , be well !

Thanks Otto. I look forward to it.

The citizen initiated referendum that would satisfy complainers of (1) the increased city tax rate and (2) the MDC-is-just-throwing-money-down-a-hole-and-there's-only-consultants-at-the-bottom-of-the-hole is simple: dissolve the MDC and its $20 million in reserves would go into the city's general fund which would reduce the tax burden on property owners, greatly. Or, at the very least, a city initiated referendum reducing the sales tax revenue earmarked for the MDC and instead applying that revenue to property tax relief (seems like a current council member even offered that idea during his campaing.

I purposefully referred to the hypothetical referendums as "citizen initiated" because the city council, MDC board and chamber of commerce board are so inextricably intertwined that such a sweeping change will never come from elected officals.

Just a few points here. Who's going to lead the masses? At the root of the anti-bigger government missteps is the lack of leadership at the top.
A referendum like this will take a considerable amount of work to get the signatures and then organize and fund the campaign. Who's going to lead the way? At best you are probably talking about a May election. So you are going to have the drive the turnout.
Remember in 2001, 8,396 (58 percent) voted to make it happen with basically nothing else on the ballot.
I figure you are going to need 6,000-plus to even be in the race. Can you motivate that many to the ballot box to defeat the MDC? Their side is proven. Has the other side? And short of an overwhelming sweep of the two city council races, I wouldn't read too much there either.
Again who's your leader? The other side has already put tens of thousands in their effort to campaign and then educate of what the MDC has and is doing.
Citizen initiated and grassroots sound great but you need organization to educate and inform the masses.

Absent an organization and leadership there will be one time to do this: the Mayoral / Council Election just prior to the Stadium Debt being retired.

Whomever is running for those offices at that time is going to have to address what happens to the 4B entity and their tax, and when one 4(X) entitiy is on the block for review, the other should be to.

I think it is important to keep educating the electorate and evaluating the performance of both our 4(X) entities based on what was promised the voters close to a decade ago.

Needless to say there are lots of unmet expectations from all those entities approved in the early 2000's in our attempt to stave off a recession that only had one cure, the price of oil.

Stewart,

I was only offering a "kill two birds with one stone" solution to issues that have been discussed recently on this blog. Although I tend to agree with Ospurt, and a hat tip to him for his research, that the city's tax rate isn't quite the abomination some local mouthpieces have claimed.

I agree, the effort/organization required to get such a measure on the ballot would be significant and is unlikely. Further the effort, organization and money to actually prevail on election day is even more unlikely. The chamber of commerce crowd, if to be commended for nothing else, will organize, spend and come out to vote. The keyboard complainers ... not so much.

I also agree grassroots efforts sound nice and are occassionally fodder for campaigns. I would also agree that MDC supporters are "proven" inasmuch as you mean they will make a concerted effort to educate and push their vote at an election, as we've seen.

But I would ask respectfully, when you say the MDC has educated the public on what "[the MDC] has and is doing": What has it done and what is it doing? What justifies the millions that have been pulled out of the local economy and now sit in a government bank account? What has and is it doing to justify the operating costs and consultant costs?

Put simply - to Stewart (who I don't mean to imply is an MDC cheerleader) or anyone - if someone asked you to tell them the three greatest success stories of Midland's ED Corp., what would the answer be? Is it an easy anwer? Is it one reaffirms your belief in the necessity of the MDC as we were told ten years ago?

I think success would come easy if you presented it as tax relief, which might take two measures or three if you go for dissolving the stadium and MDC boards at the same time. Or a worthwhile reallocation of tax dollars. I would much rather spend the MDC money on improvements to roads parks and drainage than on tire recycling facilities.

On that issue, wouldn't it require a zoning change to bring in something like that at the airport?

Bob: You're in about the same place I am on the 4A/4B boards, and maybe we can get Dufford all the way there. This is why I say this issue has to wait until the stadium debt is about to paid off, because until that is retired, everybody's hands are tied.

As for Green Tire, it is going to take a zoning change and several environmental permits from the TCEQ. I'm surprised they are seriously considering Entrada A for this enterprise. I'm all for tire recycling but aren't there existing facilities up and down I20/B20 that have better rail and truck access and aren't right next door to the largest tourist attraction in the area?

Entrada was supposed to be filled with companies that did light manufacturing or warehousing that would benefit from the free trade zone out at the airport.

They may be able to put all the equipment inside the building, but daily truck traffic bringing tires in and taking product out is going to bring the roads in the area to an early end.

Why are everybody's hands tied, the boards were created for different purposes?

Hey Bon,

Good post.
My point was the campaign to create the tax was in the tens of thousands (I believe). And the MDC spends thousands in marketing every year.
I didn't say their current campaigning has been effective in gaining legions of new supporters. I believe they would tell you they can do more to get their message out to more Midlanders. However over a period of time they have sent their message out to people on why the tax needs to be in place and why the MDC needs to exist.
I think my criticism of the MDC has been out there for people to see, and I have been fair in that criticism. However, back to the previous point. The educated opposition message has pretty much been contained to this blog.