The Alerus Center’s Double Secret Subsidy

• January 23, 2009

White Elephant on the Prairie!
The loyal readers are probably well aware that the Grand Forks event center named ‘The Alerus Center’ has been an economic disaster for the city. The powers that be at the city have been less than honest about the true picture. They count a tax subsidy as operating revenue in order to deceive the public.
This last week I learned the dishonesty has gone a lot further. It turns out that they’ve gotten a lot bigger subsidies than we’ve known about.
What I learned was that the powers that be at the city diverted $872,000 from the economic development fund to cover losses at the events center since it opened. That’s in addition to the sales tax subsidy that comes from an entertainment tax. Part of your cost of eating out is spent subsidizing this failed events center.
The city council also created a $250,000 “concert fund” to help bring in concerts back around 2004. That money was supposed to cover poor concerts and be replenished by events that they made money on. Well that didn’t work out. The fund is empty and to date the city has not reported that as a loss attributable to the Alerus Center.
If we were to take these three subsidies and total them up we’d find that they total $3,673,000. That’s $459,000 that the event center is costing to run over above what they take in each and every year..
And it’s not that they are paying for building that place. The 3/4 percent sales tax that’s going to pay for building the center is sucking nearly 7 million dollars OUT of our local economy. And for what. A building that is, according to Herald columnist Ryan Bakken, underutilized. If you look at the schedule of events that building is sitting empty most of the time.
In fact the venue hosted only two major events that I can think of in 2008. The ND Democrat convention and Neil Diamond. Both of these events could have been hosted in another, privately financed venue in town.
And it even gets worse. I’ve already reported that the City Council gave them an additional $600,000 last year to spend on a few cosmetic things around the center. I don’t think you have to be an Alerus detractor to think that they wasted the money. This year they were talking about blowing millions on more upgrades.
I’m sick and tired of the city leaders being less than honest when it comes to the Alerus Center. The entire place has been built on a pile of lies.
(Everything you wanted to know about the Alerus Center.)

Tags: North Dakota News

http://Array jimmypop

GF, like many cities its size, is run by a small oligarchy.

Small? GF is like moorhead, mn. they have a council member for every four people that live in the town….. its stupid.

anyway, it came down to one thing; Everyone wants to be fargo. they got a free hockey rink, but that want big enough to hold the 4 events per year they though they deserved to have.

side note; hows the hotel beside it doing? i recall that was subsidized to some extent as well.
ec99

GF, like many cities its size, is run by a small oligarchy. Much in the same way that Jacobs sees the Herald as his personal mouthpiece, the oligarchy sees the city as a place to satisfy its wants. The Alerus provides them city-paid entertainment. The proposed city-paid health center gives them recreation. There are just too many interlocking relationships. Gershman is on the council, the airport board, and the board of Alerus bank. Newman is president of the bank and on the Alerus Center board. Then there’s Kruen, Marshall, Rydell, Mr. Senior Lawyer Partner, et al.
Not to mention the mayor, who on more than one occasion has been close to conflict of interest as regards Altru and his doctor colleagues. The Herald is of no help, since it does nothing in the area of investigative reporting, and spins stories in the favor of the Council.

And yes, the whole Alerus project was a scam. Some, like Hennan whored for the city. Bruce Tellman simply got snookered. But then, so did the rest of us.
ec99

“I wonder what is going to happen if UND goes ahead and builds a football stadium”

I doubt that will ever happen. They’re making a 10-year contract with the Alerus. As it stands, UND does not have the bucks. They can’t afford the parking ramp they put up. When they get rid of the nickname, booster donations to athletics will dry up. Losing seasons will cause attendance to drop.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

The Canad Inn got a property tax break but I don’t consider that as bad as a subsidy since it was part of the deal for them to build the water park alongside it.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

I wonder what is going to happen if UND goes ahead and builds a football stadium on campus like the one that was disgussed in the Grand Forks, Herald? The Alerus is a over grown grain bin.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

He also participated in Hennen’s Hot Talk program as well.

All time money quote was when they were talking about having Wayne LaPierre on as a guest. Tellman said something to the effect that he didn’t like debating guys like that because they had facts and figures and he only had his philosophy.
ec99

For those who might not know, Tellman owned the Red Pepper. He also got into trouble with the law over illegal gambling. He had a 1/2 hour show on KCNN for a while leading into Hot Talk. He died of a heart attack in the men’s john in Phoenix during a hockey game.
ec99

“he was dumber than a box of rocks”

I bet he wasn’t. But then, so would he.
Brent

I’m surprised you hadn’t already heard about this. I think I was made aware of these special funds when talking to a reporter about the impact study.

The AC Commission goes to GREAT lengths to show they are operating in the black. The stubborn truth be damned.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Bruce Tellman simply got snookered.

They say you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, so I won’t mention that he was dumber than a box of rocks.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

LOL.

Never met the guy, but while he had good verbal skills I never had the impression that he knew what he was talking about.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

The key here is that the powers that be are lying to the citizens. The claim is that the Alerus is profitable, right? But the truth is that the Alerus is only profitable after heavy subsidy from the taxpayer, and much of that coming in off-the-radar funding as you just pointed out.

Somebody needs to lose their job over this.

SayAnythingBlog.com

The Alerus Center’s Double Secret Subsidy

Create a SAB Readerblog

Recent Comments