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Has Steve Magre Slowed the NBA Arena Juggernaut?
by Theresa
Fritz Camoriano
Last week,
the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted not to provide an additional
$50,000 to hire a consulting firm to work out a financing package for the
proposed NBA arena. Alderman
Steve Magre indicated that the board of aldermen probably would not vote
to put a substantial amount of taxpayer money at risk to fund the arena at
this time, so it did not make sense to spend the money to put together the
financing package. Mayor
Armstrong said that, if the board of aldermen is not willing to go forward
with the project, the project cannot go forward.
Of course,
we can be sure that we have not heard the last of the proposal to put
substantial taxpayer money at risk to build an arena or to subsidize other
business ventures. There are
always plenty of people who stand to benefit personally from
taxpayer-funded projects, and they never tire of pressing for the
government to spend more tax money, assuring us that it will be good for
the local economy. But what
is really good for the local economy is to leave money in the pockets of
local taxpayers, so they can spend it on the things they really want.
It will be up to the taxpayers repeatedly to continue to speak up
and remind elected officials that they were not elected for the purpose of
forcing us to subsidize businesses.
Many of our
readers have shared with us their letters to Steve Magre to thank him for
his actions in slowing the arena juggernaut.
Below are links to those letters.
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