It was early last week that we broke the news that the Godfrey Administration explicitly admits that the Junction Money Pit is driving Ogden City into the municipal government poorhouse. And lo and behold, six days later, the Standard-Examiner finally gets around to reporting this blockbuster story this morning. Check out Scott Schwebke's full morning writeup here:
• Ogden's Junction's money pinch?What's immediately obvious is that there are a couple of typos in the Std-Ex headline, by the way, and the the original headline should have read more like our own WCF headline above.
Try as the Administration might, it's impossible to put lipstick on this pig. In simple point of fact, the big spenders of the Godfrey administration wildly overestimated the revenues which would be derived from this boondoggle project from the outset; and Ogden taxpayers have been paying the price for Godfrey's blunder, to the tune of $800 thousand or so per year since 2005.
In its current posture, the administration is desperately trying to buy time, hoping that with a refinancing of the tax increment structure to the year 2026, the project can recover when the economy some day returns to "normal." With respect to that, we'll predict that U.S. credit markets will never return to the go-go times of the early and mid-2000's, a period of economic recklessness unprecedented since the 1920's.
But even assuming that the economy will improve to a point where the Godfrey administration might realistically be able to put this project back on its feet, at least relatively speaking, CED Deputy Director Richard McConkie spells out this less than encouraging "best case scenario":
Extending the project area until 2026 could generate through tax increment, assuming the economy rebounds in a reasonable time, about 60 percent of the revenue required for The Junction's bond debt, McConkie said. The balance of the revenue needed for the debt would come from lease revenues at The Junction and BDO, he added.That's right, gentle readers. Even assuming under an "optimistic scenario" that Godfrey can con the Taxing Entity Committee into giving Ogden City an additional 12-year cushion, and that the economy recovers to the point where significant tax and/or lease revenues start flowing from The Junction, the taxpayers of Ogden will still be covering the tab for up to 40% of of the Junction bond debt into the year 2026 with BDO revenue, in addition to the millions we've picked up already.
And remember, gentle readers... Godfrey promised (scout's honor) that the Ogden taxpayers would "NEVER be on the hook."
So much for Godfrey promises.
Have at it, O Gentle Ones.
