If you are a MoCo taxpayer, you're getting screwed.

[justme289]

If you agree this is ridiculous, tell the MoCo Council county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov

OPINION
Examiner Local Editorial: Montgomery County's music hall blues

August 24, 2010
Forced to deal with a $1 billion budget shortfall this year, Montgomery Council members are learning that even in the bluest of affluent counties there is a limit to what local officials can do with other peoples? money. A plan to save $155,000 by eliminating port-a-potties in county parks was only averted when 40 workers took early retirement and private donors kicked in $40,000. ?We cannot be all things to all people. If we haven?t gotten this message yet, after all we?ve been through, shame on us,? said Council member George Leventhal, D-at large.

Council members may have finally gotten the message, but County Executive Ike Leggett clearly has not. Leggett?s administration secretly raided the recreation department?s capital budget to pay for higher-than-reported costs of building the Fillmore Music Hall in downtown Silver Spring.  As The Examiner?s Brian Hughes reported, subpoenaed documents show that county officials knew months ago that the final price tag would exceed the $8 million in state and county funds originally dedicated to the public/private partnership, but Leggett did not tell the Council ? even though an 82 percent increase is more than enough to reconsider the whole project in a year when even port-a-potties must be on the chopping block.

When Leggett announced the $10 million deal in September 2007, it included $4 million from the county, $4 million from the state, and $2 million from Los Angeles-based entertainment conglomerate Live Nation to renovate the vacant, art deco-style J.C. Penney storefront on Colesville Road.  Council member Valerie Ervin, who represents Silver Spring, pointed to Live Nation?s ?reservoir of funds? to reassure taxpayers that they would not be stuck with the bill. A year later, Leggett?s chief administrative officer firmly reiterated that the local and state government share would be $8 million.

Council members should channel their anger at being misled into belated due diligence. A lawsuit filed in June by Live Nation competitor IMP Inc. of Bethesda claims that the county did not do an adequate feasibility study or economic analysis of the Fillmore project required for all state funding.  Council members also need to find out why the project?s controversial ? and unprecedented ? land-use agreement (originally rejected by the Montgomery County Planning Board) was later approved in a record 35 days; why Live Nation got a no-bid contract to operate the music venue and a sweetheart deal on the lease (just $7,000/month for 23,000 square feet), and how much this song and dance palace is really going to cost county taxpayers.

[Sir HC]

It is already more than $3 million over budget and they haven't even broken ground.   

[azaghal1981]

Wow! The Examiner on the right side of an argument for once. First time for everything, I guess.

[killsaly]

What a rip off.  Taxpayers should never have to subsidize music venues, and the government needs to stay out of the music venue business.  This whole thing stinks all over.  There wasnt a rich investor who could have built this place?

[MindCage]

What a rip off.  Taxpayers should never have to subsidize music venues, and the government needs to stay out of the music venue business.  This whole thing stinks all over.  There wasnt a rich investor who could have built this place?

Ike must be getting another $75,000 private bathroom, but this time it will be at the venue.  This is just down right dirty politics screaming of something super shady. I could see why Seth being a MoCo resident would be PISSED, even without it being in direct competition with his business.

[hutch]

I don't see this venue happening... which looks like a good thing

[Bags]

No bid contracts are never a good thing (hello Blackwater), and they are egregiously bad when being subsidized.  They will CERTAINLY go over budget.  This is a fiasco.

[Sir HC]

What incentive is there for Live Nation to stay on budget?  If there is nothing to penalize them for going over budget, and they would end up with a nicer venue, then I would go over budget too.

[Mobius]

if any teachers are laid off, school programs cut, after school programs cut or the like and an outrageous boondoggle with absolutely no guarantee (hope?) Of having a legitimate purpose or future value to the community is funded. . .well, maybe moco residents aren't as sophisticated as they think.  Unless the county was using surplus fund it was desperate to spend, this is rock style music vietnam

[JohnQ]

MontCo has driven other clubs - the Psyche Delly, Twist and Shout - out of business on one pretext or another, and there are no doubt many other examples.  Iko and the gang want to control what we listen to, so they spend big to build Strathmore ($100 million, if I recall correctly) and now want to spend $11 million to give to Dead Nation to please, oh please, bring culture to Silver Spring.  I realize that part of the reason Seth opposes it is the possibility of increased competition, and I don't blame him for that.  There are plenty of good reasons for the rest of us to oppose it - 11 million reasons and counting.  If a club in downtown Silver Spring were a good idea, an entrepeneur would already be operating such a club.  Aside from the occasional Sunday matinee show at the Quarry House, I'm not aware of any musical venue in Silver Spring.  Is there a market?  Probably not.  If the county wants to spend money, they could provide taxi service for county residents to go down to U Street to the 9:30, the Black Cat, DC9, etc.  And it would cost a lot less than $11 million.  Unfortunately, most of the county council (with the exception of Mr. Berliner, to his eternal credit), appears to have Mad Cow Disease or something.

[azaghal1981]

I thought Strathmore was a nonprofit?

[walkonby]

if you are a taxpayer . . . you are getting screwed.  what 's the difference?

[azaghal1981]

^Would not have pegged you for a Tea Partier Walkie.

[sweetcell]

I realize that part of the reason Seth opposes it is the possibility of increased competition, and I don't blame him for that. 

seth has said on numerous occasions that he welcomes competition - fair competition.  no-bid contracts and massive subsidies don't make for a level playing field. 

taking on LN is hard enough without giving them an $11+ million head-start.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

There wasnt a rich investor who could have built this place?

I think the answer to your question is that investors become rich by looking for a return on their investment.... and clearly this "investment" as planned would not have paid good returns...