Yes, we do need to take a positive approach toward making Lancaster a success. However, to say “Let’s stop talking down about our city and county” as an excuse to not discuss the terrible costs of the hotel and convention center project will not make its one-sided agreements or numerous questionable deals and actions go away.
What will it take to make the hotel and convention center a success? All of the deals which shift so much of the hotel’s share of costs onto taxpayers MUST be renegotiated, fairly this time, even if it means that the Penn Square Partners be evicted and replaced with a true partner. And the wrongdoing that was used to create and build this project must be investigated, and prosecuted as necessary.
But most important of all, the hotel must start paying local real estate taxes. What other hotel has ever had well over half of its construction costs (and a large part of its operational costs) paid for by taxpayers, then gets to keep all of its profits without paying its fair share of taxes to the community in which it is located?
Pretending that these things never happened will do nothing to help lift the burden that this project has placed on taxpayers for generations to come.
Very valid points, but let’s do it through our local courts and responsible citizens, while keeping the goal of Lancaster’s future success in our minds and actions.