Actual project costs not clear to taxpayers

Rick Smith's article (“Hotel profits should make up for convention losses: Frew,” Sept. 16) discusses the probability that the convention center and arena will lose $1.3 million during its fifth year of operation. It also discusses the assumption that the hotel (which we are supposedly selling) will generate enough profit to cover the complex losses and plus some of its annual debt payments. It also stated that the city was aware of all this.

Once again it appears that the actual cost of the convention center/arena and hotel is not being laid out in a clear format whereby the average taxpayer can understand it. I conclude that once we sell the hotel we are stuck with a $1.3 million annual cost that I don't think has been accounted for in any budget discussions that I have seen. By the way, that assumes everything goes as projected during the next five years.

Quoting John Frew, the city's project manager, “This is the business community trying to revitalize the downtown using public funds. He's absolutely right.” (regarding the projected loss). Perhaps we need a tax on the downtown businesses to cover the profit shortfall.

Gordon Taylor

Anamosa