Any personal guarantee should come from investors. No guarantee should ever be expected from taxpayers.[...]
Any public official who gambles with taxpayers' dollars is not serving the people.[...]
If the hotel's the potential cash mine that officials seem to believe it is, no public/private deals that leave taxpayers potentially on the hook are necessary.
Standard-Examiner Editorial
OUR VIEW: Tread carefully with hotel plans
August 3, 2009
• OUR VIEW: Tread carefully with hotel plansAlthough this morning's editorial specifically addresses a Davis County project, we believe the principles espoused in this editorial ought to be regarded as generally and broadly applicable to any project which contemplates "public/private partnering." This editorial could be quite significant, we believe, inasmuch as the Std-Ex editorial board now seems to have gone so far as to advocate the execution of personal guarantees on the part of investors who may become involved in this particular project, among other taxpayer safeguards. This is the first time, in our recollection at least, that we've heard anything of this kind from the Std-Ex.
Whether today's editorial represents a genuine shift in the philosophy at the Standard-Examiner, as a result of lessons hard-learned with respect to certain floundering Ogden City projects, we do not know. But we'd like to believe the Std-Ex has become a little more "street-wise," regarding complicated economic development projects such as this, and that our home town newspaper will be more committed to playing the role of the "taxpayer watchdog" in the future, rather than carrying on the "cheerleader" posture which the Standard has exhibited in the past.
And what say our gentle readers about this?
Who will be the first to comment?
