In the interest of public accountability, I am pleased to present the "budgets" submitted by the Madison Chamber of Commerce and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation at last night's Madison City Commission meeting. These documents come as the Chamber requests $69,000 in taxpayer support and the LAIC requests $140,000 in taxpayer support.
First the Chamber's "budget":
Then the LAIC's poorly written letter and "budget":
I quotesify both "budgets" because of glaring omissions, such as salaries and, particularly in the LAIC's case, details on how the organization will spend the public money it receives. Chapel's letter recycles text and bullet points he's been circulating with little change since 2009. And it offers no quantification of the impact of any of the projects for which the LAIC claims credit.
Now consider: if I walked into a Madison City Commission meeting with promises and a spreadsheet as vague as Dwaine Chapel's, with a marketing spreadsheet and then two catch-all lines for expenses, could I expect to win a $140,000 handout for my private economic development efforts? Would you be upset if the City Commission gave me that handout and didn't set any conditions or benchmarks for my private use of your public money? I would hope so.
But wait a minute: it appears the LAIC request just went up! The LAIC is requesting another $100,000, on top of $140,000 it gets from the zombie third-penny sales tax, toward the failed Forward Madison economic development initiative. Funny: I thought 2011 was the last year of that five-year plan. The City of Madison contributed $100,000 a year for five years, starting with the 2007 budget. Let's see... 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011... that's five years. 2012 would make the sixth $100,000 contribution. Did I miss a year? Did Forward Madison just turn into Afghanistan? Or did Dwaine just forget to delete the line from last year's letter?
Cory,
I hope you understand how much the Chamber and its so-called economic development affiliates walk hand-in-hand with government. You can call it capitalism, if you like, but don't confuse it with a competitive "free" market economic system.
Steve, I hate to burst your bubble, but corporations and businesses don't want a competitive "free market" economic system: they want monopolies, in which they make all the money, without any competition (except carefully chosen shills). Think Microsoft and Apple. Notice any competitors? Think it's all because they're so innovative? Ever check into the ties between the various oil companies? Or banks? Or media outlets? (Think Rupert Murdoch.) For that matter, look around Madison - go to a downtown business association meeting some time. Monopoly is more than a game.
Steve, correct me if I'm wrong here. Eve, I think Steve already groks anti-competitive crony capitalism and the government favors it seeks.
But here's where Steve and I may disagree: he sees government as just another tool that corporations will use to bleed us dry, the way local bigwigs and some of the lucky businesses they recruit squeeze more dollars out of the common worker here in Madison. I see government as a necessary check on the power of big business, which if completely unregulated would run roughshod over labor and consumers. The free market still requires an umpire, doesn't it, Steve? And does it not then behoove us to elect good umpires and hold them accountable?
Corey, great point, but, some reminisce about a more romantic age, like the 1800's and early 1900’s Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Ah, I always thought the term "Laissez- Faire" sounded romantic in a French way, eh? In fact it was such a "sexy" word and a "romantic" era that the populace experience record breaking profits for Rockefeller and Company while working people "enjoyed" the dangers of unsafe working environments. The workers "looked forward" to long, long, long working days for just pennies, nickels, and dimes. Even young children were allowed to get in on "all the fun" of those days! Today, we have Government Regulation that took all the "fun" out of work.
It almost hurt to read that letter--I think LAIC could use some more copyediting in the future.
Mike, I suspect Dwaine Chapel doesn't like writing much. That's why the LAIC has hired Emmeline Elliott to write his newsletter columns for him.
Guy, I am genuinely curious what third way Steve can recommend between the bad old days you describe and the rotten new(?) day Steve sees us in now.
When just one or two people run an organization it's very difficult to be good at every aspect and get everything done. I doubt Cory would criticize writing style if he saw results, which is the main thing. Dwaine told the city commission the LAIC had a goal of 400 jobs but 500 were created. I don't know how this math gets done, but the LAIC should have specific metrics. That info should be given to the city and county commission and available to the public each year when the budget request is made. We hear each year they're working hard, their line is out and they might snag something. Or they did snag one but he got away. That's not good enough.
John, if the program were succeeding, I'd still ding writing style ("Come on, guys, you're winning! Don't cloud that message with bad writing!"). :-)
Created 500 jobs? Oh, the deception! Show me the list, and show me how that counts for anything when we're really 380 jobs in the hole. I suppose LAIC will make the same claim on population. They said they were going to increase the local population; are they now going to change and just count people who moved here while ignoring the people who moved away?
That's the accountability problem. How do they count jobs? The 500 number he gave doesn't seem believable without an explanation of how it was derived. Commissioners should insist on metrics tied to support since basically we are paying a private organization for their services. It's too critical for the overall success of the community. "Since the inception of Forward Madison a vibrant period of growth has occurred." How many people would agree with that?
"Created 500 jobs? Oh, the deception! "
Maybe they are just taking a play from Obama's book and proposing a new economic stimulus. I knew this sounded familiar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJu0DgpiK8c
Again, utter distraction. Impeach Obama and Dwaine, that's fine with me. That fact is, the LAIC is peddling unsubstantiated numbers. Dwaine's saying "500": show me the list. What 500 jobs exist now in Madison that didn't exist in 2006, pre-Forward Madison. Show me the causal link that says each of those jobs resulted directly or even indirectly from LAIC action.
Southeast Enterprise Facilitation Project, serving Turner and McCook counties, cites 332 new/retained jobs from 1997 to 2008, pre-recession. That's 28 a year over 12 years. Dwaine is claiming a hundred a year over the last five years, during recession. Back that claim up.
I did not see in this budget any about payroll expenses. Just how much does Chapel get paid to see jobs leave Madison?
[CAH: According to the LAIC's 990 form, his 2008 salary was $101,333 salary, plus over $10K in benefits.]
Cory, I know I could go look this up on my own, but I figure you have the numbers closer at hand than I do: what's LAIC's annual budget?
[CAH: Well, if we can believe what they're telling us in the document they handed the city, they're claiming expenses of $740,000 in 2011. In 2009 LAIC claimed $550K in revenue and $67K in expenses. Interestingly, that 2009 990 filing also includes a claim that Forward madison created 29 jobs.]
Oh hey, it's conveniently in that document right there. Whoops.