Last updated on 2011.11.13
Lake Area Improvement Corporation executive director Dwaine Chapel appears before the Madison City Commission tonight to make the LAIC's annual request for taxpayer subsidy.
The good news: this year's LAIC request is only $140,000, down from $240,000 last year. The difference is the end of the Forward Madison program, which the city supported to the tune of $100,000 a year over the last five years.
The bad news: The LAIC's request is not documented in tonight's city commission agenda. There is no indication on the record of how the LAIC will use our tax dollars, what specific programs or employers or property acquisitions it will support, and, as usual, no indication that the city intends to impose any accountability or transparency on the LAIC's use of public money.
The LAIC raised over $2 million dollars in 2006 for the Forward Madison campaign. In that time, it has abandoned a downtown improvement program, ignored retail development, and utterly failed to meet a job creation goal, instead overseeing a shrinkage of our local labor force to the lowest size in over a decade.
If you and I performed like that, we'd face at least some serious questions, if not a search for a new job. But the Madison City Commission will likely smile and nod tonight. They'll throw another $140,000 of our money down the LAIC black hole. The LAIC executive board will inexplicably write Mr. Chapel another check for his $101,333 a year salary, most of which he'll spend in his hometown of Brookings.
And Madison will continue its economic stagnation.
Related: Nationally, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is encouraging its members to push their local school districts for more accountability. "Instead of simply going to bat for new dollars for schools," says Frederick Hess, author of a Chamber of Commerce study encouraging business leaders to engage in education policy debates, "business is in a position to say, "˜We want to help you guys out, but we want to be confident that these dollars are going to be spent in a way that matters for students' success.' "
We're quick to make such demands of our public schools. How about making such demands of our taxpayer-funded economic developers?
As a Madison resident, I will always support the LAIC. Myself and many college graduates would not be living and working in Madison SD without them. Thanks LAIC for creating a tech-savy home for DSU graduates.
I am looking forward to attending this meeting tonight. I hope others turn out and voice their concerns.
O.K. Dan. Show me where, in any of the tax subsidies handed to the LAIC, the city has ever said, "The LAIC will meet these conditions in order to receive this funding." Show me any condition to which the LAIC is held accountable to the taxpayers funding its operations. Show me where the taxpayers are permitted to see what happens to their money and allowed to have a democratic say over the LAIC's operations.
I pay taxes. I have skin the game. Show me how I get to control or at least monitor the LAIC's use of my money.
When the public spends money, it deserves full and open accounting for the spending of that money. I have yet to see full and open accounting from the LAIC. Please surprise me and show me where that's available.
“The LAIC will meet these conditions in order to receive this funding.â€
Is that all the accountability you look at? You think they can say "with this much money, you should bring in this number of jobs or you won't get the help again". So then what, just get rid of them and let you bring businesses to town? They will have good years, and bad years. That is just how it works. Any taxpayer that feels they can do better can step up to the plate. Form your own organization and bring in businesses and you could get that money too.
"I pay taxes. I have skin the game. Show me how I get to control or at least monitor the LAIC’s use of my money."
I pay taxes too. As a taxpayer, my money went to the LAIC. How they spend that is none of my business. Do you ask everyone who receives public funds for receipts? Do you stand in line at the grocery store accounting for all the food stamps in SD? No......oh the outrage....Maybe they should post all welfare recepients on the wall at the grocery store, b/c I as a taxpayer deserve to see where social services spends their money. I'd hope you are in agreement.
"When the public spends money, it deserves full and open accounting for the spending of that money. I have yet to see full and open accounting from the LAIC. Please surprise me and show me where that’s available."
You posted it in your own article. Your public funds were spent on the LAIC. What they specifically do with it is none of our business. Last I checked, they are still private.
Yes, actually, the accountability I'm looking for is that simple. Bring us jobs, prove your results, or you're fired, and we hire someone else. It's pretty simple.
Dan, if you believe how the expenditure of our tax dollars is none of our business, then we can't have this conversation. You are just wrong. Our tax dollars are public. We should not give them to private organizations that will not tell us how they spend that money. Private organizations dependent on public support must accept the requirement that the public gets to look at their books.
But with your secretive, anti-democratic attitude, you'll win appointment to the LAIC board in no time. Congratulations.
"Yes, actually, the accountability I’m looking for is that simple. Bring us jobs, prove your results, or you’re fired, and we hire someone else. It’s pretty simple."
Well I am glad you are not involved then. I expect jobs, but in times of decline, I expect job retention vs job creation. Not to mention, when you replace someone like that, you remove all relationships and clout this person brought to the table. Anything they have done to form these relationships while they were working are gone. Ever hear the saying, "it's cheaper to retain a client than it is to find a new one". That applies at all levels of business. Starting off slow and steady is better than restarting and hoping for something better.
"Private organizations dependent on public support must accept the requirement that the public gets to look at their books."
Why should private organizations be forced to that when public organizations are not? Care to send me a list of all welfare recepients in Madison SD? Oh...you can't?.....hmmmm you better go hunt down this atrocity.
"But with your secretive, anti-democratic attitude, you’ll win appointment to the LAIC board in no time. Congratulations."
Secretive?.....hahaha....I guess I could be like you and selectively choose who should share such private information. Let's start with single mom's on welfare. You get me that list, I'll get you the LAIC expenditures.
Dan not a very good example. Tax payers in SD know where every penny of food stamp money is spent. In fact SD receives a bonus from the feds for how we account for the funds.
I have worked for groups that received state and local money. Every dime used was accounted for before we received it and audited after it was spent. And all reports were public.
Last year one of the salesman from James River boasted how much "free money" they got. Incentives I suppose to keep them in Madison. I wonder if Troy thinks that is ok for us to pay for this agenda? They were already a successful business, so we have to pay them to stick around?
The difference Dan, is this money goes to a private organization that operates behind a screen. They have a lot of influence on our local economy while only a few seem to benefit. If they were public, we could gain access to much more of it. They do file a 941 (general incomes/expenses) which is available for public review, but real transparency would be to disclose their donors and the amounts contributed. It's fair to know who gives and who gets the goodies. A county commissioner that used to go to the LAIC meetings told me it seemed like the decisions had been made before the meetings started. For many reasons I am a skeptic about what goes on there and how much it benefits the community as a whole. One of their main goals is to increase wealth, but for who??? Just the big boys?
Nobody is buying this trickle down thing any longer. We help people at the top make more money, while they insist on retaining tax breaks so they can keep even more of it. I doubt Ronald Reagan would be pleased at this point. It's just a money grab.
Would be more meaningful if people would use their full name!
private groups getting tax dollars don't have to share where the money is spent....that is rich what a crock of SH*T DAN!.....you really believe private organizations don't have to show where they are spending tax payers dollars.....wow.....
Here are my thoughts from this evening.
I found myself rambling in the time I had to present to the commission, but here is what I should have said.
1. We need a full accounting of the public money that is given to any private organization. We need to be able to have measurable goals and a serious conversation about the effectiveness of current programs.
2. We need to focus on retail development. Madison should be a regional hub for shopping and entertainment.
3. $300,000+ in funding could be used by the city in other ways.
A. We could help fund a school remodel plan and include an events center. This would draw more events and tournaments to town, increase sales activity and sales tax revenue.
B. We could develop a Downtown Development program to fix store fronts, promote local business, and bring more festivals and events to town. Again -- more sales = more sales tax revenue to fund city programs.
C. We could use this money to give incentives directly to retail businesses that are willing to build here in town. (ie That second grocery store that everyone wants)
D. We could create our own office of Economic Development at City Hall, hire qualified staff, and get them to work on bringing more business to town. (This would hopefully offer more transparency and less interference from the "good old boys".) Real or perceived, some think we have a "good old boys" club in town.
Or we can continue to fund the LAIC and Chamber of Commerce and ask for more accountability. I personally think they are doing many good things to improve our community. I personally enjoy many of the Chamber programs put on each year. I would choose to focus on the LAIC and see if they can add retail development to their mission.
We need to be a destination. We need our downtown stores open on Saturdays and Sundays. We need more competition and better selection. We have ways of promoting and funding these things. It is time to think outside of the box and build on the efforts that are already being made.
But as one person put it to me tonight, if more people don't start showing up to these meetings, no one is going to take our concerns seriously. The status quo will reign. We need to write letters, go to meetings, do some serious planning, and help move Madison forward.
Wait a minute. The head of bringing business into Madison doesn't live in Madison? Doesn't pay taxes in Madison?
That's gotta be hard on him to recruit business. So how's the conversation go..."Move your people and your business here, but if you don't like Madison you can do what I do and live in Brookings?"
Interesting.
Whoa...just saw his salary and it must be expensive to live in Madison...which is why he doesn't live there. Too bad there isn't affordable housing there. I had no idea that housing was so expensive in Madison that it would keep executives from living there. That's gotta make it hard to attract labor.
Jana, I have contended previously that an employer does not have a right to dictate where an employee lives. However, in this particular job, where a man is being paid to sell the merits of this community, choosing not to live here himself sends a message that negates his limp marketing efforts.
Ashley made good points, but things won't change unless city commissioners have a real grasp of what people want, and that means showing up and expressing your thoughts. Not very many people go to these meetings, so what do you expect? Even with participation things may not change without a different makeup of commissioners who also want new priorities. For example Dick Ericsson said the LAIC hasn't historically done retail development. Well, things change and the city is way behind on this issue. Further it would be much healthier if city planning was done internally. We fund the LAIC with a board mainly of businessmen that make a lot of decisions for our town. When people have that amount of control they aren't eager to give that up, and to what extent do they do what's best for the community or act out of self interest. This situation may be very difficult to alter.
The LAIC states where they spend money just like Social Services or any assistance program for the needy. Last I checked, it says what programs receive the money, but not specifically who. How can you expect anymore then "We are using it for development." from the LAIC when public programs can just list "EBT program". Public funds are public funds so if you want a private org to state specifically where they go, then i expect the same of public orgs. Now, instead of reading my post like I want no accountability of private groups receiving public funds, realize their is a line drawn for both public and private and the fact that you want more specific details is frankly none of your business. Show me who gets aid with my tax dollars in Madison and I'll expect the same from private orgs. Until then, it is none of our damn business.
Utter misrepresentation, Dan. The LAIC does not offer anything like the accountability of public agencies assiting the needy.
By the way, Dan, what's your salary? Working as a teacher in public schools, and a graduate assistant at a public university, my salary has always been public knowledge and the taxpayer's business. What's your paycheck?
No need to disclose my paycheck, however, at 26, I'm willing to bet I am in the top 5%. Intelligence backed with an education pays well in SD. It's too bad most people are too dumb to figure it out.
yes, Dan, your moral and intellectual superiority aside, your paycheck is none of our business, because it's all private money. The only people who have a right to know what you're being paid are the people writing that check. In my case, and in the LAIC's case, that's the taxpayers.
Of course, if you say the LAIC has helped create your job, and if the LAIC used my tax dollars to do that, well, hand over that check stub! :-D
Still waiting on that list of welfare recepients in Lake county.......They should be posted if they are receiving public funds......or so says Cory.
Dan: You may want to get back to work rather than risk dropping in to the 95 percentile with the rest of us schmucks.
Dan, John is still waiting for your full name. Cowboy up.
As for welfare recipients, well, Dan, you're going to lose on that analogy. On the one hand, your analogy suggests that Dwaine Chapel and the LAIC are like welfare recipients, who in your eyes perhaps deserve scorn of their weakness and dependence on government. if you want to cast Chapel and your bosses in that light, go ahead. Welcome to the party.
On the other, perhaps we should have a clear list of the names of every person who receives taxpayer dollars, Dwaine Chapel and other welfare recipients alike. Of course, there's already all sorts of accountability built into the welfare system: income guidelines, restrictions on food stamp usage, time limits, drug testing, etc., more than I've ever heard applied to the LAIC handouts. You want to publicize welfare recipients' names? O.K. I may be able to roll with that. But then I want Dwaine Chapel and the Forward Madison board to pee in a cup. Fair is fair.
Boy, Dan, your arguments either don't address the points made here, or they end up reinforcing my points. Tee hee.