Worried About The Answer?
On Saturday, June 13, 2009, the Arlington County Board “approved a few preliminaries, clearing the way for what is expected to be formal approval” in July “of a new publicly-supported cultural center to be located in the former Newseum space on Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn,” wrote Scott McCaffrey in this report in the Arlington Sun Gazette. He also wrote:
“Board members and County Manager Ron Carlee said Saturday’s action did not obligate the government to move forward on the project. But the expectation is that the proposal, long sought both by the arts community and Rosslyn civic and business interests, was on a track to win approval in July.”
For more information, read the Manager’s “Board report,” which was item #45 on the Board’s agenda on Saturday. In an unusual move, the county "spinners" issued a press release the day before the County Board's approval to move the project forward. Here is the “fiscal impact” as described by the County Manager in his Board report:
“The proposed Cultural Center will have an estimated $10 million in annual economic impact resulting from 250,000 annual visitors. No new tax support for the proposed Cultural Center’s operating costs is anticipated at this time. Appropriations from the Rosslyn Business Improvement District and the Rosslyn Fund Trust and Agency account, program and facility rental fees, and consolidation and reallocation of existing County programs and staff are anticipated to be sufficient to cover operating costs.
“The proposed Second Amendment to the deed of Lease and significant rent abatement (estimated value of over $14 million) provides a significant financial benefit to the County in covering operating and capital costs of the proposed Cultural Center.
“Capital renovation costs are currently estimated at $6.7 million, and will be funded from $1.1 million from the Rosslyn Fund Trust & Agency Account and $5.6 million in reallocated General Fund PAYG projects, which in turn will be funded with available, unprogrammed bond proceeds.”
The Sun Gazette also reported on the comments of two fiscal watchdogs:
“This is simply not realistic,” Robert Atkins said of the proposal. “It is simply a farce. These [financial] numbers do not make sense.”
“Wayne Kubicki, another fiscal watchdog, said the costs to taxpayers for capital improvements to the space have ballooned up 70 percent from just six months ago, to $6.7 million, and could go higher. He said county officials should put the entire project to voters in a bond referendum, “or are you worried about the answer you might get?”
Scott McCaffrey of the Sun Gazette ended his article with this quote by Wayne Kubicki, Arlington's SuperWatchdog:
"This project has ‘done deal’ written all over it."