An Intelligencer Journal New Era article “County commissioner still hopeful agreement on convention center can be reached” reports towards the end:
“The city’s contribution of $2 million to $5 million annually for FF&E is slated to come through the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone program.
“Lancaster has not been selected for the new program, but an announcement could come from state officials within days. City officials remain confident.”
What is acknowledged here is what the former commissioners and others feared at the time, the projections for the Convention Center were ‘cooked’, understating its expenses and not allowing for necessary reserves for repairs and renovations.
Five years later, the shortfall of $2 million to $5 million in this single category is publicly acknowledged. However, the public is told that it will be funded by a City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) program that has not yet been enacted nor has Lancaster been chosen as a recipient.
(Even if this were to occur, it absorb funds that otherwise would got to worthy new projects.)
Did Mayor Rick Gray and the sponsors of the Convention Center have a crystal ball that anticipated that the state at some distant date would come up with additional forms of funding, which even now is hypothetical?
Did they even care so long as special interests profited?
