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Originally Posted by GGG
So if I am following this right Nenshi is terrible because he raised our taxes so we want to vote him out to bring some one in to raise taxes to fund an arena with taxpayer dollars.
The ridiculous of the above aside I think the city and the flames missed an opportunity to have the feds pay for the new arena. The current Olympic bid only has 1.4 billion of 1.75 billion of matching funds in the budget. The flames were willing to commit $275 million to an arena. So the city should contribute an additional 275 million to the Olympic bid for a city owned arena that would be leased by the flames to pay back the 275 million. The terms would be similar to the Saddledome where flames do repairs but there is no property tax. Then the city gets 275 million from the feds in matching funds so you have 550 for the Arena. Then you also free up about 150 million from the Olympic bid for the community arena.
That this didn’t happen last Tuesday means everyone involved with this process isn’t doing their jobs announcing an Arena contingent on the Olympics that the city didn’t have to pay for would have guaranteed plebiscite victory. I can’t believe they missed the boat on free money
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my position is that at least the arena would tie his hands and prevent him from spending it on one of his many foolish "personal legacy/vision" capital projects. nenshi's already the mayor who's annual tax increases were $112/year vs. $44 by the last mayor. what do we get in Calgary for nenshi's high taxes? ideological capital projects that don't solve Calgarians' problems - so while we're at it, heck why don't we just build a freaking arena. The way the Flames are currently dealing with nenshi is perfect.