Kestrel: Breaks, bulls, and suckers

Time for a 2012 update from Lake Basebegone:

W. C. Fields is credited with some pithy bromides:

“There comes a time in the affairs of man when he has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”

“Never give a sucker an even break.”

For some reason, these seem to fit the moment.

Because one of the bitter disappointments of the golden years is finding out just how gullible one has been, and almost always learning that lesson via government, politicians, and the myriad parasites and cronies that love to rub shoulders with them while picking the publics’ pockets.

We suppose it is the penalty of leading a sheltered life in a family with ‘old fashioned’ values, and having spent a career with professionals who acted with integrity and respect for customers.  So retirement came, and we had not learned the lessons that others may have along the way.

It’s especially painful when you find out that the word gullible is not even in the dictionary!

Our subject here is the recent news breaking on Kestrel Aviation.  We had been making notes on the subject for some time, and were planning on an ‘in-depth’ essay when time and priorities allowed.  We got waylaid by affairs at MSHA and other things we considered more timely.  And our personal life, if you must know.

We’re going to address the subject briefly tonight, with plans to come back to it somewhere down the 400 foot platform that is a metaphor for “the road,” with appropriate governmental symbolism.

We think tonight of the estimates of 17,000 jobs; Jim Horowitz and Oxford Aviation; FLee Bailey; and Johnny “Protocols” Richardson and his private discussions with ‘a half dozen or more Fortune 500 companies’ interested in locating on the former Naval Air Station.

By comparison, 100 train passengers a day coming to dine and shop in Brunswick is barely worthy of note.

The Chase:

Recent news reports indicate that the Kestrel Aviation ‘promise’ of a glorious aviation future for Brunswick is turning out to be so much hype and propaganda associated with milking whatever public (IE: taxpayer) funding cows are grazing in the fields.

This report appeared in the BDN last week:

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Kestrel Aircraft Co. is negotiating with development officials in Superior, Wis., to create 300 to 600 jobs initially envisioned for Maine, a local redevelopment official confirmed Friday.

Steve Levesque, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, said Friday that Kestrel founder Alan Klapmeier confirmed a story in the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune reporting on a Jan. 16 public hearing at which the city of Superior would consider a development agreement with Kestrel for the company to build parts for its new single-engine turboprop plane there.

A friend sent along further reports from other outlets:

The city of Superior is in the running for an airplane manufacturing facility that could create 300 permanent jobs initially and up to 600 jobs by 2016.

Kestrel Aircraft Co. — led by founder and former head of Duluth-based Cirrus Aviation, Alan Klapmeier — has been in negotiations with the city and state of Wisconsin since mid-July to discuss the possibility of siting a manufacturing plant in Superior.

Under the terms of the development agreement, the city would provide assistance with the project with the sale of land, grants, and tax increment financing to encourage the development.

In addition, the state could provide tax credits to make the project a reality, said Port and Planning Director Jason Serck.

And this from AVWEB.COM:

Kestrel Moving To Wisconsin?

Media in Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., are reporting that a deal is close to site the new factory for Kestrel Aircraft in Superior, which is a few miles from Kestrel President Alan Klapmeier's home town of Duluth and just across the Wisconsin border. Klapmeier, who co-founded Cirrus in Duluth, took over Kestrel 18 months ago with plans to manufacture the turboprop single in Brunswick, Maine. It's not clear what happened with the widely publicized plans to build the aircraft at a decommissioned naval air station in Brunswick.

Kestrel was in line to receive an incentive package in exchange for the 300 jobs the facility would create. Wisconsin seems to be stepping up to the plate financially, too, and is hoping the plant eventually creates 600 jobs. "This is a significant number of jobs, right now, but it will continue to be a significant number of jobs in the years to come," said Jim Caesar, an economic development consultant contracted by the city told the Superior Telegram. "They have plans beyond this prototype that will require additional workers well into the future … this is an ongoing thing." A spokesman for Kestrel was not immediately available for comment.

In related news, MRRA directors are said to be looking for a new face to head the organization.  Rumors are that Ben Dover has applied for the job, but calls to his representatives met with a turned cheek.

The Ostrich is reported to be hard at work not pulling it’s head out of the sand, fully committed to keeping it’s ‘government watchdog’ record tarnished.

We hope you’re feeling suitably loved and respected as another year of continued growth in the town of Perfect begins.

And that’s today’s report from Lake Basebegone.

Technorati Tags: MRRA,Kestrel,Lake Basebegone

“Forecasting” on Lake Basebegone: Kestrel, MRRA, and shopping for SOB’s and OPM.

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you…you may know that your society is doomed.”

       – Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged

Before we go much further on this post, let’s give credit where credit is due.  A few months back, as the Kestrel cookie was crumbling, a certain State Senator from Brunswick, who we affectionately called Stangali in a recent post, was quoted thusly:

“We’re not losing jobs to New Hampshire, period,” Gerzofsky said Wednesday.

Turns out he was true to his word, and as rare as that is in a politician, we need to praise him for keeping his word.  We did not lose jobs to New Hampshire, just as he assured us.  Nope; we lost them to Wisconsin.

In the same days, it was reported that Kestrel head Alan Klapmeier

said he would never pit one state against another for financial gain.

Did you know that the word GULLIBLE is not in the dictionary? Oh, sure, the word gullible is in your Funk & Wagnalls, but GULLIBLE is not.

That’s because there is a new and higher definition needed to adequately describe the suckers we’ve all been in the Kestrel Kaper, and the larger electro-political phenomena in play here. And your correspondent has been as GULLIBLE as they come in this, and horror of horrors, may actually be complicit in sending you down the same slippery path, if only by editorial errors of omission.

There was a red flag that should have warned us about what was to come early on:

In this photo, the new Kestrel aircraft prototype is flying directly crosswise to the runway pattern at BNAS at low altitude. Our guess is that this would get you a slap on the hand from your flight instructor, no matter who you are and how inactive the runways might be.  Or more appropriately, a kick in the cajones once you’re back on the ground.

Unless, of course, you can simply go back to Photoshop, and change your direction by 90 degrees or so. And you’ve got the right SOB’s covering your six.

As things have played out, the Kestrel Kaper was krosswise with everything about MRRA and their oversight of base redevelopment, award winners though they may be.

First, a confession; it’s no secret that your humble correspondent is cynical, aged, and a bit of a crank when called for. We’ve never done anything to persuade you otherwise. We began our illustrious blogging career following the publishing of a number of our columns on Oxford Aviation in The Ostrich. 

The editors and publisher, whether they realized it or not, worked hard to convince us we should look for another outlet for our efforts.  We’d like to think our work sparked the interest of Steve Mistler, then at The Forecaster, who did first rate investigative reporting on Oxford, and before long, MRRA’s love affair with Jim Horowitz was on the rocks.  FLee Bailey tried briefly to intervene, but he couldn’t make the hand fit the glove, to borrow an image.

We believe we are as ‘self-aware,’ if not more so, than any ‘public official’ or local ‘journalist',’ when it comes to commenting frankly on town matters, especially as they relate to the watershed economic issues of base redevelopment.

Accordingly, when the news first broke of Alan Klapmeier and Kestrel Aviation signing up as the shining star that would be the first step in bringing ‘as many as 17,000’ new jobs to the redeveloping base, creating a revolution in private aircraft development and manufacture right here in our own backyard, we bit our tongue. And trust us, it was a whole lot harder than saying that Harriet Beecher Stowe School is a ‘beautiful new facility.’

We read that Klapmeier believed he could raise $100 million in private investment funding to provide the capital foundation for his revolutionary new aircraft design. We remember wondering how long it would take to recoup $100 million in venture capital when you’re building airplanes that sell for something like $3 million, with a profit in the range of $250,000 each.

Unless our math is wrong, all other details aside, you’d have to sell 400 of those airplanes to amortize the principle of the venture capital stake in your business, without interest or return on investment.  That’s before the business became profitable on its own.

And without any consideration for operating expenses and overhead. But what do we know compared to Director Levesque and Senator Gerzofsky and Congresswoman Pingree, who have far more experience in the private business world than we do?

After all the dirt we dished on Oxford, we decided to shut our big traps on the Kestrel/Klapmeier undertaking, and give them the benefit of the doubt.  Boy, were we wrong.

So Where Are We Today?

We’ll get to the recent Forecaster items in a moment; they reflect back on many of our well known SOB’s, and the various OPM dispensers they employ.

While “Occupy Wall Street” nimrods are busy protesting capitalism, it’s clear there are other aspects of our economic ‘system’ far more worthy of protest, and government is right in the thick of it. Campers and sign carriers should be occupying Washington in protest of crony capitalism.

Kudos to The Forecaster for two items in last week’s Midcoast Edition: a lengthy analysis by Emily Guerin, and a surprisingly frank editorial by Mo Mehlsak.   Now we find out we’re losing Emily to greener pastures; all the best to you, Ms. Guerin.

The two items linked above have some worthy quotes.  Here are a few.

From Mo’s editorial:

Is Kestrel Aircraft the kind of company the state, and the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, should have been trying to attract, and should officials have done a better job scrutinizing the company before seeming to fall head over heels in love with it?

Guerin's report suggests the answer to the former is probably not, while the response to the latter is yes, definitely.

From Emily’s report:

"One of the hardest things about the aviation industry is convincing the business world that there's a market," Klapmeier said in July 2010.

Klapmeier expressed frustration ….. about how difficult it had been to get the financing he assumed was in the bag.

….a rift between Kestrel and Coastal Enterprises Inc., the Wiscasset-based private, nonprofit community development institution that provided tax credits to the company, led Kestrel to look elsewhere for financing.

We don’t know about you, but an ‘institution’ that hands out tax credits to companies is not a private operation as we see it.  If you are dealing in government provided, taxpayer funded financing, you are, at a minimum, a ‘quasi-governmental’ organization.

"We're stewards of the taxpayer dollar," Spies said. "So across our whole portfolio we're trying to limit that risk."

It only gets better:

Klapmeier told a reporter he was frustrated by the bureaucracy involved to get New Market Tax Credits. He complained about the excessive amount of due diligence required and the "layers upon layers" of assurances he had to provide. Klapmeier wanted to  convince his investors to believe in him with an emotional appeal, not by providing reams of detailed financial information.

"What we are removing from the process of life is the ability for people to rely on judgement," he said. "Is this really the right way to protect ourselves?"

"I believe the fastest way to bring closure to this funding gap, is to utilize political assets to pressure Coastal to honor its commitment," Kestrel spokesman Scott Prinz wrote to Gervais in an Oct. 26, 2011, email.

Imagine if you were seeking a mortgage to buy a home, or a new car loan.  Would you have the guts to complain about the detailed financial information you were asked to provide?  And rely instead on an ‘emotional appeal?’

We’re about through here, but we have one more observation, and that is that Johnny ‘Protocols’ Richardson and FLee Bailey avoided the spotlight like the plague since all this came about.  If even THEY thought Kestrel was a non-starter of a deal, what does THAT tell you?

Solyndra, Kestrel, Oxford Aviation; is there really any difference?  Not really.

What we really need here on the base is a huge windmill farm.  If we were King for a Day, we’d look for expert investors in the local area  to risk THEIR OWN MONEY on such a venture.

Wouldn’t you?

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,MRRA,Kestrel,Stangali,Forecaster,Lake Basebegone

Kestrel Aircraft, SOB’s, and Senator Stan the Minority Man.

Have we said before that when you look back on things, Alan Klapmeier, the aviation visionary, and his Kestrel Aircraft plans amounted to nothing much more than Jim Horowitz and the Oxford Aviation delusions of bringing jumbo-jets to Brunswick for overhaul work?

Opportunism is the word that ties them together.  Klapmeier wears cooler looking hats, but so what?

When you come right down to it, there’s more than enough venture capital in this country, and investors looking to get in on the ground floor, that if you have a really good idea and business plan, you shouldn’t have to fleece the taxpayers, especially the desperate ones, to get your enterprise up and running.

Klapmeier flirted with the MRRA, our local equivalent of a rich old spinster looking for a last fling at love, but before you know it, moved on to other temptations.

Local reports have described Superior, Wisconsin as the flirt who lured Klapmeier away from Brunswick.  And our very own Senator Stan the Minority Man has posted an essay on the subject.

It includes this passage:

Despite the public statements made by several prominent misinformed individuals about the deal, Kestrel was not chasing public grants around the country to support 100% of their capital needs, which were approximately $100 million. A project of their size requires a combination of private capital and governmental business incentives to be successful. The company had already raised cash and commitments of over $65 million in private equity…..

 

Far be it from us to question the Senator’s statements; his reputation when it comes to honesty precedes him.  Yet, we can’t remember a single report that stated anything close to commitments of $65 million in private funding.  In fact, just the opposite.  Must be that we and the Senator get our information from different sources.

Adding more confusion to the mix, our trusty research staff has turned up a report that adds more credibility to the theory that Klapmeier and Kestrel have been shopping for lucrative taxpayer funding beyond what we’ve been told.

Ever heard of Dallas-Hiram, Georgia?  Neither had we.  Apparently, they’re in the greater Atlanta area, and Paulding County Northwest Atlanta Airport is in the region. Like many other jurisdictions in the country, they’re looking for economic development.

Klapmeier and Kestrel came a-flirting, just like they did here in Brunswick.  You can read the story here.

The important passage is this one:

Swafford also mentioned the disappointing news that Kestrel Aircraft had made decision not to locate in Paulding and instead will move to Wisconsin. The state is extending Kestrel $108 million in tax credits and $4 million in low-interest loans. Swafford, who said that the operation would involve about 400 employees, added that the decision was not due to any shortcomings with the new airport facility, but rather the inability to match the kinds of tax incentives the company was looking for in choosing a new location.

If memory serves, the number of jobs cited for Kestrel was 300 in the early promos for Brunswick, and then became 600 for Superior.  In Georgia, the number was 400, but who’s counting?

Maybe our man Stan can look into the situation and give us a full report.  And contact his peers in Hiram-Dallas to share a brewski over those missed shots.

And then he can get back to his friends at the MRRA and find out how they missed the Georgia connection.

Technorati Tags: MRRA,Brunswick,Kestrel,Gerzofsky

Kalling the BDC! Kestrel & Klapmeier Kould Use Some Kash (we mean a loan….)

We hope the BDC has lots of koin left in it’s koffers.  You know the BDC – the Brunswick Development Corporation – on which Johnny Protocols is focusing like a lawsyer.  Hard to pronounce, but that’s a combining form of lawyer and laser.  And JP wants to bring them to an even higher level of superior service to the public interest.

The reason we bring this up is because there is disturbing news on the street this morning.  Just the sort of thing that the BDC loves to engage in remedying, using that money of theirs that, you know, isn’t public, but isn’t private either.  For lack of a better term, it’s municipal government squish money.  Or maybe slush money would be better, since it reminds one of ‘slush funds.’

A friend passed along this BDN article link this morning.  Shortly thereafter, another friend passed along this Mainebiz link, which refers to the BDN article.

You might recall that we posted on Klapmeier and Kestrel in the past, and you can review those efforts here.  We invite Johnny Protocols to do so in particular, though he might find the essays driven by ‘personal and political’ agendas, which is the filter he views everything through.  Well, mostly everything.

Our reporting included this now classic, and even prophetic passage:

Because one of the bitter disappointments of the golden years is finding out just how gullible one has been, and almost always learning that lesson via government, politicians, and the myriad parasites and cronies that love to rub shoulders with them while picking the publics’ pockets.

Our earlier reporting included the photo at the top, which we remarked shows a total disregard for the flight patterns at BNAS.  The plane is going crosswise to the runways.  Perhaps we should all have seen that as a harbinger of what was to come.

We thought as we studied the Kestrel news back then that the business case didn’t make much sense or hold much water.  They were planning on selling the planes at $3 million each as we recall.  And if you had a generous mark-up of $250,000 on each, that would take selling 400 planes as an absolute minimum to recoup an initial investment of $100 million, with no return at all on that money, and no money to pay for a damn thing, including any labor.

But what do we know?  We’re not in the aviation business; we just deal in flights of fancy and idiocy.  So we didn’t think to do a business case analysis.  Maybe Scott Howard did; can someone contact him?

Which makes the current dilemma Kestrel finds itself in a perfect match for the BDC, which doesn’t seem to dwell on business cases either.  You might recall as well that BDC recently gave MRRA a grant of $250,000 to help in its ‘economic development.’

So let’s get to the essence of the current news:

Kestrel CEO Alan Klapmeier confirmed Wednesday that his startup company is behind on rent payments, has been late with paychecks and that Kestrel employees in Brunswick are currently without health, life and dental insurance after the company failed to pay premiums.

You really should read the rest of the BDN article….it’s breathtaking, actually.  A horror story, we would think. 

It includes this bombshell:

At an aviation industry conference in late July, Klapmeier said the company needs to raise $125 million to see the aircraft through FAA certification, according to Aviation International News.

He needs another $125 freakin’ million dollars before he can sell a single one?  Wow!  Sounds like a really solid investment to us.  At least for BDC, which really prefers to give money away anyhow.

             

All we can say is that it’s a damn good thing no one else makes a single engine private aircraft.  The sooner Klapmeier gets to market, the sooner that glaring deficiency will be corrected.

And the sooner we can all start rolling in the economic growth, or whatever else is covering the local pastures.

By the way, has anyone seen Jim Horowitz lately?  Is he still hanging out with FLee Bailey?  We’re just wondrin’.

Technorati Tags: BDC,Kestrel,MRRA

Postscript on tax delinquencies at The Ostrich

Subtitle: Accountability, and the lack thereof in public affairs.

The other day, we posted this little item passing along a news report that Brunswick Publishing, owner of The Ostrich (known to some as the Times Record), or as we have called it from time to time, the NOTWIUN, has been delinquent on its property tax payments to our fair town.  The report was found here.

As often happens, one realizes in retrospect that there is more to the story than first met the eye.  We refer, in the case before the court of public opinion, to this little nugget:

Three years ago, BP received financial assistance when the state provided it with access to $7 million in funding from the tax-free bond market through the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME). That move became controversial when, in 2008, Brunswick Publishing’s new owner, Sample News Group, laid off ten employees.

A Sample official had previously told FAME the bond money would be used to, among other things, “maintain current headcount and payroll” at the paper.

Failure to be held accountable is a constant complaint about our elected officials at all levels, and we bow to none when it comes to chagrin motivated by this failure.  In this example, we have a second order version of this phenomenon: the failure of elected officials to hold accountable those to whom they doled out public resources conditioned on commitments which end up being broken, sometimes almost immediately.

If you look at the linked item in the quote above, you’ll discover that the recently referred to Senator Stan Gerzofsky and former Commissioner John “Protocols” Richardson are (duhhhh!) tied to the story. 

So why wasn’t Brunswick Publishing held accountable?  You can make your own guesses.  You can ask, of course, what form such accountability might take.  And you can ask whether that form was specified in writing before the public was saddled with the obligations involved.

I can just hear the answers to an imagined question: “What could we do?  We can’t shut them down, and if we could, then more jobs would be lost.”

I think what we have here could be called a “one-sided corporate welfare” deal.  For the more worldly, we might call it a “quid non pro quo,” or loosely translated, something for nothing.

For the MRRA, it’s hummedeh hummedeh hummedeh time…

 

As the great man might say if he was mayor of Lake Basebegone, MRRA and Brunswick are now squarely ‘facing the tail of the bull.’

Alan Horowitz, oops, I mean Klapmeier, and his Kestrel Aviation job explosion in the local area, are now one step closer to saying buh-by, ta-ta, and au revoir to the local landscape.

The Superior Telegram reported today:

An aircraft manufacturing facility in Superior gained a nod of approval Tuesday from the Douglas County Land and Development Committee.

The committee voted unanimously to transfer property at the fairgrounds to the city’s Redevelopment Authority to facilitate a proposed manufacturing facility for Kestrel Aircraft Company.

One of the more curious parts of the whole story is how the number of jobs to be created has increased since Kestrel’s whirlwind landed the plum aviation asset on the former Navy Base.  300 was the number used to win the prize here in Brunswick, Maine, but it took doubling down to 600 to grease the way in Wisconsin. 

Hey; you want jobs?  I got your jobs right here.

Their development authorities must be a lot tougher than ours.  Or maybe Maine workers are thought to be twice as productive as those slugs in Wisconsin.

Surely the Inferior Ostrich will do an in-depth investigative report to let us know how our local trustees missed those other 300 jobs.  And how ‘TIFs’ might be called into play to keep the deal alive.

In related news, local weather forecasts call for temperatures to continue in the 70’s.

Soon as we finish clearing all the warm air off the driveway, we’ll see if Stella can get hold of Senator Stan the Minority Man, Johnny Protocols, and FLee Bailey.  If the betting is still open, they could try dropping the job promise to 150.

Or they could bring in some milk-cows from Wisconsin to help the grass stay short and green, in an environmentally appropriate fashion consistent with the underlying story line.

Technorati Tags: MRRA,Kestrel,Lake Basebegone

PS on Kestrel & Klapmeier

         

We were just out mowing the west 40 on this grand fall day when we had an afterthought on the post of earlier today.  It fits perfectly with our reputation for clear hindsight and non-judgmental cynicism.

Since the early Kestrel investment need for $100 million was to bring the new plane design to market, Klapmeier cannot blame his ‘cash-flow’ problems on ‘lackluster sales due to the weak economy,’ or ‘unexpectedly high material and production costs.’

And now he needs another $125 million to make it to market.  At least for now.

No, the kulprit here is Klapmeier himself and his incompetence in constructing the non-recurring cost model for bringing the design to market, and the creation of a valid business case for doing so.

Throw in the obviously flawed ‘due diligence’ performed by the MRRA and the authorities in Superior, Wisconsin, and you have the classic synergism of a technical genius with no business smarts, and government officials willing to bend over backwards with the public trust to encourage good intentions, no matter where they may lead.

Either that, or lots of wool being pulled over the right eyes.

Or, in the worst case, maybe both.

Remember Johnny Protocols and the ‘no less than a dozen Fortune 500 companies’ he was courting, who all seemed to disappear into thin air?  Maybe their protocol was disappearing, because they were never there in the first place.

Which makes disappearing ever so much easier.

Technorati Tags: Kestrel,MRRA

Oxford Aviation: what a beauty Brunswick missed

If there’s any justice in life, you’ve long since forgotten about Oxford Aviation, as we thought we had.  You might even have forgotten that John ‘Johnny Protocols’ Richardson and his consiglieri FLee Bailey were cosmetic consultants to the operation, with the latter bringing his considerable reputation as an aviation industry leader to the table.

Oxford Aviation had great plans to leverage the key asset at the former BNAS – Hangar 6, we think it is - into a leadership role in global aviation maintenance, refurbishment, and upgrade.  They went so far as to show what they had in mind, using this picture of the ‘Brunswick Jet Division’ on their web page.

 

We apologize for the lousy quality of the image, but it’s all we could get our hands on, and frankly, taken in context, it’s poetic and prophetic.  (We’ll have to watch it, or we’ll soon be known as the Bard of Brunswick.)

Thanks to our informant Michelle A. Small, formerly code-named Ms. Mall here on Side, we can report to you that Oxford is back in the news.  We’re not sure if they’re seeking the advice of J.P. and FLee these days, even behind the scenes.  Both have more than enough ‘fly by night’ entries on their resumes, and don’t need to add any more to their glowing legacies.

According to the first story Michelle passed along, the folks at Oxford Aviation have been working their tails off.  And the tails of customers as well.  Here’s a sample passage from the article:

Steven Skilken, 63, was piloting the Cessna with five family members from their home city of Columbus, Ohio, to Colorado Springs when a section of the airplane’s tail broke off, sending the plane into a “violent yawing oscillation” as it was coming in for a landing, the suit alleges.

Scary as hell, you must admit.  Both literally and figuratively, this makes Johnny Protocols and his snafus re clean elections (that’s a laugh) funding of his Goobernatorial campaign look like a kid who can’t get a paper airplane to fly.

You’d think such high-profile glories would clip the wings of Johnny P. and Oxford, and cause their flights of fancy to end in tailspins.  But never fear; there are lawyers involved here, folks.

In the second article passed along by our source, you can read about the lovely time Oxford County is having with Horowitz’ and Oxford Aviation’s stewardship of the local airport operation.

Here’s the crux of the story:

Oxford County is attempting to evict Oxford Aviation from Oxford County Regional Airport, accusing the company of violating multiple terms of its lease.

According to the county, Oxford Aviation violated 11 terms of the lease it signed with county commissioners less than a year ago, following a three-year negotiation. The lease expires in 2027.

This is bad enough, but the words that really caught are attention are these:

According to the lease, Oxford Aviation does not pay rent to the county but is responsible for the cost for maintaining the facilities it leases at the airport and for submitting quarterly maintenance records to the county commissioners.  (emphasis ours)

Which couldn’t help but remind us of the generosity of certain well-known quasi-governmental entities, like one right here in Cape Brunswick.  We don’t know about you, but we think a $247,000 grant to Brunswick Taxi, with the barest of obligations, trumps the generosity of a zero-rent arrangement for a facility that probably couldn’t find a respectable tenant under any terms.  Kind of like the old Times Record building, once the pride of our municipal leadership.

All things considered, you might say we should file this post under ‘count your blessings.’

Lucky for us, thanks to the rigorous management style and due diligence of MRRA and other local notables, Oxford Aviation’s “Brunswick Landing” got the wave-off.

And MRRA’s due diligence dug up Kestrel Aviation and Alan Klapmeier to kome our way, and klaim their place in Brunswick’s illustrious ekonomic development history.  

                   

And BDC even plays a role in MRRA support.  Can it possible get any better than this?  We can almost hear “This nearly was mine….” playing in the background.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,MRRA,Oxford Aviation,Kestrel

He’s BAAAACKKKK!!!

Catching up on the news last week, for reasons those who know us will surely discern, Side recalled this memorable movie clip, in which the money line is “Here’s Johnny!”

That’s because Brunswick is watching the opening scenes of its own ‘Here’s Johnny!’ production.  We’re not talking about the Johnny in the scene above, or Johnny Carson, the comic legend for whom the introduction was made famous by Ed McMahon.

No, we’re talking about John “Johnny Protocols” Richardson, as we tagged him over the years in  prior posts.  You probably know he is now on the Brunswick Town Council, taking the seat held by Joanne King for nine years, six of which she was Council Chair.

King also served as Treasurer of Richardson’s ill-fated primary run for Governor in 2010.  Richardson had been Speaker of the House in Maine during his eight years in the legislature, and then became Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development under Governor Baldacci.

While holding this position, he told the Brunswick Town Council that “protocols'” prevented him from providing information on the numerous Fortune 500 companies he was courting to establish a presence on the redeveloping Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Coupled with his boundless ambition, and the ego that drives it, Johnny apparently felt this “development leadership’ qualified him to be Governor.  Curiously, when the tail of his political comet burned out, due to ‘anomalies’ in his campaign finances, the Fortune 500 prospects went AWOL big time.  Fickle capitalists, we suppose.

We have no idea whether Ms. King had any role in the anomalies, and frankly, we don’t care.  But we have a hunch their names might be linked in future reports on local development and business matters.  But let’s leave that for others to research and report on.

For now, we believe these words from a Forecaster item last week are more than enough to spike the interest of anyone conscious enough to contemplate what the future in Brunswick and Maine might hold.

Richardson, a former Democratic gubernatorial candidate who replaces former Chairwoman Joanne King on the council, said balancing the needs of public education funding with redevelopment efforts at Brunswick Landing will be his major focus.

"There's a lot of talk about corporate welfare for Kestrel, but you're not hearing enough about the need for local school funding."

"Brunswick is a local education town, and we pride ourselves on having a strong education system," Richardson said, "and we're in jeopardy of losing the benefit of our local public schools if we are moving too far in one direction."

In these brief statements, Johnny makes it clear that his number one priority is pandering to the schoolies, especially those organized as “Brunswick Community United.”  Neither party cares about the realities of enrolment decline or stunning growth in cost per student.  Instead, they prefer to talk about ‘imagining our future’ and ‘investing in our schools.’  We think they could be better described as ‘fantasizing about our future’ and ‘investing in our teachers.’

Here’s a litte secret: we’ve engaged in rehabilitation of sorts over the past few months, and we expect to give you the details in the coming weeks. 

As for the subject at hand, we believe ‘Johnny Protocols,’ aka John Richardson, has entered the rehabilitation process for his political reputation.  We can’t know whether it’s to prepare him for another run for Governor in 2014, or to seek higher office at the federal level.

We’re quite certain, however, that the cost of his rehab will be borne by local property taxpayers, whether they want to or not, since the town imposes an adjustable rate property tax, and a vote here and a vote there, and next thing you know, you’re eating the cost of $20 million plus in school borrowing, plus the usual increases enacted via ‘tough choices.’

“Imagine” the clamoring for Johnny to run for higher office once the schoolies feel his budgetary love.  And be grateful you had a chance to “invest,” via your property taxes, in furthering his political ambitions.

Isn’t that what ‘community’ is all about?

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,budgets,Johnny Protocols,town council

OK, LT. Dover; time to come back from your summer vacation.

As you probably noticed, when your correspondent takes a sabbatical, we also give a break to our trusty staff.  They appreciate the time off as much as we do, and they’re glad to get away from us and our incorrigible ways for the duration.  They may ‘respect’ Side, but they aren’t particularly fond of us.  Why does that always seem to be the case with those we know?

The riff that we’re on at the moment seems to be particularly well matched to LT Ben Dover’s attributes.  And even more, there’s a news item out this week that dovetails very nicely with his image.

You’ll find it here in the Forecaster.  The story is a lovely mélange of Brunswick Municipal Government; the Brunswick Development Corporation, which we are currently exploring; Coastal Enterprises Inc (CEI); and town facilities.

                

Before we pass along our observations, we’ll tell you that Ben, given his sense of military discipline, kept up his PT regime during the summer break, and is as fit as the photo above shows.  We suspect that the rest of you, and Side as well, slacked off a bit.  All we can say, boys and girls, is that what follows will have you repeatedly and fervently grabbing for your toes to resume your workout.

Based on what we’ve written in the last few days, you should have a pretty good idea of what Brunswick Development Corporation (BDC) is about, even if you and Dale King don’t see eye to eye on that.  If you want to find out about CEI, look here.

We remind you that we are a small town engineer, not a lawyer.  Still, as we see it, CEI is another one of those shadowy, quasi-governmental entities.  As we understand it, they were created through federal legislation, and today, they dispense federally allocated tax credits to those they choose, so they exercise some form of control over federal largesse.  If we recall correctly, they also deal in CDBGs, or Community Development Block Grants, which are federal dollars.  A few moments spent on their web site will convince you they have a barely hidden socio-political agenda.  We invite those who find these characterizations in error to submit comments and corrections to us, in which case we will correct the record.

You’ll also notice that CEI identifies themselves as a ‘private, non-profit community development corporation.’  How many evil corporations do we have to deal with around here, anyway?  It’s like they’re everywhere!

We believe that CEI was central to the vaunted Kestrel Aviation picking up their bat, ball, and glove and taking the majority of their operation to a Midwestern state that had better goodies to offer.  Seems they were disappointed when CEI didn’t come through with the tax credits they thought they had been promised.

So while CEI trumps BDC all to heck in scale and volume, they both basically deal in the same general offerings.  Among which are ‘corporate welfare and tax breaks,’ or if you prefer, ‘tax loopholes.’  You know how it goes; we hear over and over from local elites, semi-elites, and assorted moon-bats that such things are anathema to social and economic justice. 

And that those who engage in such practices are sons-o-bitches.  But once again we see that what they really mean is that it’s OK when it’s OUR sons-o-bitches.  It’s those other sons-a-bitches over there behind that tree or over that fence that are the real SOBs.

So it’s kinda fun to see BDC and CEI working together in the deal whereby the town offloads the old Rec Center and Municipal Building on Federal Street.  And both of them making some shekels on the deal for use in future cherry picking.

We’ve got a golf-tournament to watch this afternoon and other things on our agenda.  And the golf tourney looks to be heading for a pretty exciting finish.  Even more, the course was built on a former dump (landfill to elites and semi-elites) not more than 10 miles from where we were born and spent our formative years.  So we’re gonna try to cut to the chase pretty quick here.

CEI is getting one hell of a deal on the Rec Center and Town Hall as we see it, but some have argued there was no other reasonable option.  And it allows CEI and BDC to take credit for various things, like making the move of Town Offices to the McClellan building possible, making the new Police HQ cost less, and taking some white elephants off our hands.  At the same time, they help Cape Brunswick, the richest little town in America, continue to build its reputation as the demolition capital of Maine.  Even when it comes to demolishing taxpayer money, like we did with the TR building.

What really gets our hanky all balled up here are the statements regarding CEI in the subject article.  BDC President Larissa Darcy had these comments:

the move would also improve the town's reputation as a business-friendly community.

"In having a company of this size, like CEI, choose downtown Brunswick, it shows others that Brunswick is a good place for business," she said.

We take exception to the implication that CEI is a ‘business’ as normally conceived.  For the reasons we explained earlier; until someone convinces us otherwise, we will continue to think of them as a quasi-governmental/politically driven enterprise, replacing government occupied buildings.  And keep in mind that when they bring their existing jobs here, they’re taking them from other nearby communities.  Until proven otherwise, this is a zero-sum exercise, except for the demolition guys and the builders.

Darcy added:

CEI would also be paying taxes on properties that were previously nontaxable because of their municipal status, Darcy said.

As we told you, it says right on the CEI web page that they are a non-profit operation, which means they qualify for exemption from property taxes, just like local churches, Bowdoin College, and others.  So we’ll wait to see if they actually pay property taxes, and if they do, perhaps they can convince the Ivory Tower to ignore their exemption and pay their fair share as well.  When that happens, those monkeys we’ve been training should be ready to fly out of our….oh, forget it.

Toe touch, toe touch, one-two, one-two.

Moving on to the McClellan Building subject, we read these words attributed to our Town Manager:

The town will move its Town Hall and Council Chambers into the McLellan Building on Union Street by April - when BDC is expecting to close on the sale - pending renovation work, Brown said.

The town manager said more information about the scope and costs of renovation work on the McLellan Building is expected to emerge sometime in September.

We talked about this earlier in the year, including this post.  In that item, we said:

Last we can recall, the town was planning on spending around $800,000 or so, up from early projections of $300,000, to ‘adapt’ the building for town use.  We don’t think any of that sum was characterized as remediating ‘deferred maintenance issues.’

We happened to be discussing the subject earlier this week with an in-town acquaintance, and mentioned the $800,000 figure.  He laughed and suggested we think more in the range of $5 million.  We have no idea whether he had any real basis for this comment, but an architect has been hired, and you know what happens when we do that.  Before you catch your breath, demolition and rebuild comes into the picture as ‘cheaper in the long run.’  Just look at the school department.

We’re not suggesting that the McClellan building is ready for the wrecking ball, but we do see some similarity in the way Bowdoin maintained the building and the way the Brunswick School Department maintains their physical plants.  And here we thought Bowdoin had ‘pride of ownership;’ they clearly didn’t in this case.

Witness these recent photos taken around the McClellan Building by a reader of ours who has solid experience in exterior building care and repair.  And note as well that in acquiring the McClellan, we will be picking up a wood exterior building to replace one with a brick exterior, meaning regular cycles of exterior repair and painting.  Oh, well, we are Cape Brunswick, and we want to save taxpayer money.  We’ll spend whatever it takes to do so.

                 

                 

                 

                 

                 

                 

                 

That should be enough to make the point.  If this is the obvious and visible deferred maintenance, one can only imagine what the architects will find or not find as they look elsewhere.  One can’t help but remember how shortly after we bought the TR building for $1.5 million, we ‘discovered’ that it needed $5 million in work to be fit for use.

We don’t know if $5 million will be the final number, but we’d bet you a dozen of Frosty’s finest that it won’t be $800,000 thousand.

We’re not sure exactly, but we figure the McClellan building should be in the range of 10 years old or so.  And that Bowdoin College should be ashamed of itself for letting the building get into this condition.  But who knows; maybe they had an inkling long ago that they would not be the owners for very long.  And that ‘someone else’ would have to worry about the deferred maintenance before long.  Someone who can find the money they need very easily.

Maybe Bowdoin should offer up a calisthenics leader for us.  We think we’re going to see a lot  more toe touching required around here in the next several years.

                   

Everywhere we look…ducks, ducks, and more ducks.  Ducking for cover would seem to make sense at the moment.  It could be raining duck poop for a long, long time.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,CEI,BDC,Municipal buildings

Paging S. Donald Sussman-Pingree; please bring your checkbook!

Exactly two years ago, plus or minus a leap day, we posted the now classic item appended at the end of THIS post.  It  was early in the history of this media outlet, and we had to find our amusement where we could. 

In view of current events, we thought you might want to refresh yourself on this watershed item from our on-line archives.  (BTW, the Ostrich on-line archives span all of two weeks; ours span our entire existence.)

As loyal readers know, we have frequently reported on the inability of The Ostrich to pay its fair share in property taxes on a timely basis like the rest of us do.  And we’ve juxtaposed it with their editorial predilection for telling local taxpayers to stop the whining and pay whatever it takes in increased taxes to ‘support the community and promote our school excellence.’

As it turns out, the tax delinquencies of said Ostrich have now risen to a higher degree of public visibility.  We have friends to thank for tipping us to the latest events, and as soon as we have T-Shirts made with The Other Side logo, they’ll get theirs free.

The public visibility to which we refer is rising to the level of an agenda item at the upcoming Town Council meeting on Monday, March 5th.   The agenda packet for the meeting can be found here: http://www.brunswickme.org/council/agendas/packets/2012Packets/packet030512.pdf

You’ll have to scroll through the document, but when you do, you’ll find a complete accounting of the amounts the publishing firm owes the town.  Even more enlightening, you’ll find a sequence of emails between town officials and the publisher, and they are, to say the least, both revealing and troubling.

You can judge for yourselves whether The Ostrich  has a viable future.  They are clearly in extremis.  We’ll just say we’re glad they don’t have a cash advance of $100 or so from us.  That would have been as good an investment as buying into Kestrel Aircraft Brunswick operations.

Lastly, we have to thank another friend for suggesting that perhaps the owners of The Ostrich should contact S. Donald Sussman-Pingree to plead for a cash bailout.

He’s apparently long on cash and highly motivated to invest in media outlets, though we can’t fathom why he would do so.

If you have any hunches on why he would, please let us know, and we’ll follow up.

 

Technorati Tags: Ostrich,Brunswick,taxes

 

Local newspaper adopts new name, image

According to unconfirmed reports, the owners & publishers of Brunswick’s daily newspaper have announced that the publication is putting a new face on the operation.  Determined to stem a precipitous circulation decline, the paper’s leadership has been searching for an identity that would breath new life into its pages, and be more consistent with its editorial policies, journalistic rigor, and the refined sensibilities of the region.

“We felt it was important to get the best ideas possible in this endeavor,” the paper’s owner allegedly said, “so we enlisted the help of the noted media consulting firm Bailey, Balderdash and Malarkey, who’ve recently been helping ABC News and the New York Times with their images.”

The locals were advised to connect with the character of the community, and Bowdoin College is clearly a cultural pillar of the town.  Impressed by the catchiness of the college newspaper’s name – ‘The Bowdoin Orient’ – the publisher asked the consultants to come up with something similarly appealing and symbolic, and after months of rigorous study, they struck pay dirt.

Henceforth, the broadsheet will be known as ‘The Brunswick Ostrich,’ and the masthead will read:

The Brunswick Ostrich

Serving the willfully uninformed since 1967

In keeping with the theme, the editorial board adopted the mascot shown below:

Editors claim to be excited about the new identity, and believe it will “tie all the loose ends together,” a willfully un-named source close to them said.  “Even the photographers feel a new sense of dedication,” the source said, “and to prove it, they offered this shot of the editors digging in to a crucial story,” presumably about the planned beach resort on the redeveloped Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Calls to Ostrich offices were not returned by post time, so this reporter cannot confirm or deny whether “feathers will be flying”  due to any possible staff realignments. 

And questions about whether the beach resort is simply a Potemkin Village do-over for Oxford Aviation and renowned barrister F. Lee Bailey will go unanswered.

Which, come to think of it, is just the way the editors have always liked things.

Bailey Bids Buh-bye to Barrister Business

An article yesterday in Portland’s largest newspaper reported the following:

F. Lee Bailey, the famed defense attorney who sought to make a comeback in Maine after being disbarred more than a decade ago, lost his bid to practice law on a split decision Thursday by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

                               

Bailey was denied the right to practice law in Maine in a 4-2 decision by Maine’s highest court. The ruling Thursday overturned a previous decision by a single justice who found that Bailey was fit to practice law because he was sufficiently rehabilitated after mishandling a client’s stocks worth $6 million.

The court denied Bailey in a 4-2 decision, saying the lawyer who helped to win acquittals for celebrity defendants O.J. Simpson and Dr. Sam Sheppard had “failed to demonstrate that he is sufficiently rehabilitated by proving that it is highly probable that he recognizes the wrongfulness and seriousness of most of the misconduct he committed.”

FLee, as we’ve called him in posts in the past, may be best remembered as a confidant and advisor to our own Johnny Protocols, especially during his failed gubernatorial campaign effort of 2010.

                 

The pair is shown above during that time frame, taking up space as non-paying customers in Wild Oats at the Tontine Mall.

It occurs to us that FLee should have consulted with JP on the path to rehabilitation and redemption in the public eye.  If he had, we might be reading about Bailey’s election to the Yarmouth town council, a group he could no doubt nullify at will.

                               

Or his non-judgmental embrace of international statesmen.

Bailey, of course, distinguished himself several in the case of Oxford Aviation’s attempt to hornswoggle a huge hangar on the former Naval Base.  Words we posted back then include these:

Bailey uses soaring flights of hyperbole, enchanting all within earshot without the slightest bit of evidence, analysis, or substantiation. Try these: “a tremendous opportunity for Brunswick, far beyond anything I had imagined;” and “further cement Brunswick as a global leader in the aviation world.”

Bailey touts “contracts with aviation industry titans,” and avows that Oxford is “in discussions with Airbus.” His speechifying is all we have to go on. I suppose we should be grateful, though; this is too good a deal to pass up, right? (If you were an Airbus executive, would you take Oxford Aviation seriously?)

Jim Horowitz, the owner of Oxford Aviation, has kept out of the public eye, except to plead for more respect for his employees, a frivolous distraction from the troubling facts on the record.

And this:

…which could morph Oxford Aviation’s towering world-wide reputation for skill and quality in aircraft refurbishing into similar results with business jets, for which there is a large and growing market.

You remember Oxford Aviation, don’t you?  Trust us, you’re better off if you don’t.  Especially since Kestrel Aviation swept in to “further cement Brunswick” as an also ran in the aviation world.

In the process, though, FLee taught JP the finer points of public hyperbole, which is why councilor Protocols could say at the recent council meeting that he lives ‘within a stone’s throw’ of the railroad tracks.

By our reckoning on Google Earth, that means Johnny P can hurl a stone something like 6,000 feet or more, which for the non-technical, is in excess of one mile, or about 50 times further than Bouchard Drive residents live from the tracks.

Maybe he should enter the David and Goliath games this summer.

Technorati Tags: Bailey,Richardson,Brunswick

The WGAN ‘big break’ experience this morning

For those of you who might have tuned in this morning, you already know that a ‘half-hour segment,’ once you allow for the pleasantries of conversation, amounts to no more than 15 minutes or so of active discussion time.   And you know that we have ‘a voice made for print’ to go along with ‘a face made for radio.’

We’ve often said that we can say hello for 15 minutes, so the brevity of the time slot this morning permitted touching upon only a smattering of the items in the outline we had with us so we’d be able to avoid any ‘dead air.’

                  

Since we covered so little of it, we’re following up by ‘copying’ the list here, and adding a few notes or edits as we wish…

Notes for WGAN w/Dennis Bailey, Saturday, October 12, 2013

Main talking points:

• The shadowy, unaccountable world of 'quasi-governmental authorities' spending OPM on various 'economic development' pursuits. (OPM = other people’s money)

• And the sycophants and well-connected winners who are their drug dealers and groupies.  (consultants of all sorts, who can help you find money you didn’t know existed, arrange for it’s capture and expenditure, and otherwise tell you whatever it is you want to hear, and in the doing, help you keep that nice cozy job you have in government)

• Agenda drift, spending drift, mission drift...

  • Look at MSHA, MTA  (Maine State Housing Authority; Maine Turnpike Authority)

  • $300K plus solar heated 'affordable apts;' Turning rest stops into art exhibits

• NNEPRA  (Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority)

  • Why was it created? (1995, MSRA Title 23, Chapter 621) King Admin

    • Passenger rail died for very good reasons (but that doesn’t matter; the laws of economics don’t apply to government)

  • Why is the “P” there? Why not just rail?  (Shown below are three exemplary passages from the defining legislation for NNEPRA; if these aren’t enough to undermine any sense of credibility on their part, you’re drinking too much Kool-Aid)

    • §8009. Reasonable fares: Fares for the passenger rail service established pursuant to this chapter must be set at reasonable levels to encourage use of this service. [1995, c. 374, §3 (NEW).]  (This says that fares should not be set based on what the service costs, but on what it takes to get people to use it.  Could you have a viable business that operates this way???)

    • §8011. Rules of construction: This chapter must be construed liberally to effectuate the purposes of this chapter. (In other words, don’t worry about the pesky little details of the law.)

    • §8111. Purpose: The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, as established by Title 5, section 12004-F, subsection 16, is a body both corporate and politic in the State established for the general purpose of promoting passenger rail service as set forth in subchapter 1. It is declared that the purposes of this chapter are public and that the authority must be regarded as performing a governmental function in carrying out this chapter.  (In case there was any doubt, this is a PUBLIC, GOVERNMENTAL enterprise; always remember, the government is here to help us)

  • A solution looking for a problem

    • Reducing traffic jams on 295?? Between Portland and Brunswick? Are you serious? And reducing carbon footprints???

  • Compare to buses, which already existed, especially as a way to Logan, or even points south of Boston.  (You can actually get to the airport and'/or points south on the bus, but you can’t “get there from here” on the train.)

  • Why not bring back the Stagecoach? Lower carbon footprint....

  • Trumped up ridership; trumped up economic benefit

    • Everybody heading south from Freeport and Brunswick is taking money that would have been spent locally and spending it elsewhere.

    • Do people come ON the train, or BECAUSE of the train?  (In other words, as we’ve written in the past, they were coming regardless, and simply chose the train for the trip.)

  • The 'solutions' are irreversible, and so must be justified at any price.

    • Spending whatever it takes to save money

• Draw parallels to BDC and Brunswick Taxi

  • The same exists everywhere, no doubt

• CEI and tax credits for Kestrel at MRRA; now not paying bills, wages, benefits; needs another $125 million to keep their head above water.

• The most troubling part is that this has become accepted practice, and no one is concerned when you tell them about it.

• The same way we've become immune to crime, cultural coarseness, etc...

The Takeaways:

• Desperate economies looking for love in all the wrong places; like moneyed old maids falling prey to suave, debonair, and charming gigolos.

• The worse the 'natural' economy, the more the 'unnatural' economy grows and perpetuates, and the more institutionalized it becomes.

• And the more slippery the slope becomes, and the more like a death spiral.

   

And in case you wondered, the phone hasn’t been ringing, and it must be all those agents.  Which means, lucky for you, that you get to keep us right here in the local Cape Brunswick ‘media market.’

Technorati Tags: Big break,WGAN,radio spot

Bits and pieces….the weekend version

Sand gets in your eyes

As long as we’re in the frame of mind to discuss things getting in your eyes and obscuring your vision, we might as well dip into the rich mine of Ostrich imagery.

That moniker, as you well know, derives from the view that our ‘award winning’ local print media outlet frequently sticks its editorial head in the sand.  Consequently, they often end up with sand in their eyes, which makes it ever so difficult for them to see clearly.  Especially if they make things worse by rubbing their eyes.

We hope this explains a clearly misguided ‘view’ in their pages in recent weeks, because if it doesn’t, things are much worse on Industry Road than we thought.

Just about a month ago, they editorialized on safety in the vicinity of the new Harriet Beecher Stowe School.

“The beautiful new building represents a sound investment in this community’s future and an integral component of state, regional and local Brunswick Naval Air Station closure comeback strategies.”

We won’t touch upon the ‘comeback strategies’ concept now; that in itself is worthy of full staff attention beyond what we can offer at the moment.  Instead, since we drive by said school on a nearly daily basis, we fixated on the ‘beautiful new building’ phraseology.

We ask you: do you know anybody who has driven by the new school, and told you how “beautiful” it is? If you do, you have what we politely call an ‘unusual’ circle of acquaintances. or friends, if that be the case.

In case you do, The Ostrich would love to get their names and addresses, because they seem like perfect candidates to sign up for a prepaid subscription.

You might even negotiate a finder’s fee.  Which you could use to buy eyewash for your friends.

All politics is local, and so are double standards

Years ago, and we don’t remember where, we came across a commentary about congressional corruption.  It included a passage that read something to the effect that “all politicians are crooked sons-a-bitches, but Congressman Porkbelly is OUR son-of-a-bitch.”

It made the point quite clearly that most people think the problem is with everyone else’s congress-critters, while our very own such critter is different, because he/she focuses their corruption on our local best interests.

This is the very essence of pork-barrel politics, and is, if you think about it, the heart of the money-driven, special interest, big-government corruption and pandering that is about to bring the American experiment to an ignominious down-fall.

Here at Side, we have always been naive enough to believe we elect US Senators and Representatives to represent us in matters of national interest, such as defense, protection of our inalienable rights, and preservation of our Constitutionally based principles, especially the notion of limited government.  As opposed to doing their best to raid the local treasury to serve local interests, thereby ensuring that they maintain their protected status as OUR sons-a-bitches.

This places us squarely in a very small and dying minority.  Our membership there is clearly demonstrated by the news and dynamics associated with redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station.

How often have you read about the evils of ‘tax loopholes,’ ‘subsidies,’ and ‘corporate welfare’ in the pages of The Ostrich and other more prominent news outlets, or heard about them from pundits on the broader national stage?  Here in Brunswick, we’re blessed with more than our fair share of folks convinced that profit based enterprises in the private sector, particularly heartless corporations, are the very soul of inhumanity and social injustice. 

Even if millions and millions have built retirement nest-eggs by sharing in their success.  Including, we are sure, a goodly percentage of those whose wagon-wheels are the squeakiest.

Which makes recent reports all the more revealing of local duplicity.  Such duplicity, we would think, renders the oft-professed sanctimony null and void, unless you have a taste for hypocrisy in its most artful and local forms.

A bit of independent study will quickly reveal there are all sorts of tax incentives (‘loopholes’), subsidies (‘investments’), and grants (‘corporate welfare’) associated with base redevelopment.  These are ‘targeted’ towards those who shop around for the best deal they can get from taxpayers.  While Oxford Aviation seems to have faded from the local radar screen, they were the poster child for such shopping, including the use of F. Lee Bailey and John Richardson as sales agents for their efforts.

We refer here to recent reports of $1.7 million in federal funds approved to support redevelopment activity at what is now known as Brunswick Landing, but will always be the former base to us.  That sum includes $700,000 to directly benefit Kestrel Aircraft.

Even better, this ‘investment’ will ‘leverage’ equal funding from Maine taxpayers borrowed via bond issues.

But it’s ok, because all the sons-a-bitches associated with this economic ‘stimulus’ are OUR sons-a-bitches.  It’s those bastards in all the other states that are causing our problems.

We just can’t understand why the uninformed dolts in those other states don’t wake up and do something about it, so the rest of us don’t have to bear the burden of their irresponsible and self-centered local agendas.

In the midst of the “Great Recession,” local non-profit has a good year

You know what a ‘non-profit’ is, right?  We’re loaded with them here in Maine.  They qualify for special status that makes them exempt from just about every form of taxation that afflicts for-profit enterprises and the rest of us who pay the freight charges.

They include everything from hospitals to public advocacy groups to charities to Churches to government enterprises.  There’s even special non-taxable status that applies to the redevelopment of the former Naval Air Station.  The details are complicated, but suffice it to say whatever success is achieved there will do virtually nothing to mitigate local and state tax burdens.

‘Non-profit’ status also applies to educational institutions like Bowdoin College.  Words have meanings, the old saying goes, but that notion is a bit hard to swallow in light of recent reports.

We read in the local media that “Bowdoin College’s endowment is larger than ever before: just over $900 million.”

Turns out the endowment grew by more than 22% in the recent fiscal year.  Not bad; how did you do in your IRA’s and 401k’s?  We suspect Bowdoin has the inside advice of some real financial movers and shakers, given the successful hedge fund managers and other elites amongst its alumni base.  Still, these numbers are stunning.

The fund made $164 million on its investments during this period.  While the same article reports that Bowdoin’s investments had a losing year in the recent past, we recall not long ago reading that their endowment was less than $500 million.  So by any measure, they have done well. 

Very well, thank you, including growth attributable to new contributions.  On the flip side, of course, are debits caused by dipping into the fund to finance operations and other vital expenditures, like replacing one ice arena with another ice arena.  And embellishing their art museum with a $25 million renovation, which clearly improves the quality of instruction they provide to their art-deprived student body.

Either way, whether through the generosity of their donors, or their own investment strategy, Bowdoin has achieved results well beyond that of America’s best-known profiteering corporations.  We’re confident that gains made by Bowdoin avoided the taint of free-market participation; that would be so totally counter to the global justice and socially responsible principles they espouse.

It’s fun to give some scale to these numbers.  Bowdoin has about 1700 students as far as we know.  So their endowment fund has a value of about $530,000 per student.  Not bad; if they earned only 5% a year on these funds, well below their historic average, it would amount to roughly $27,000 per student.

We’re delighted that Bowdoin has been able to do so well in their investments, even though we’ve had starkly different results on our own.  Petty jealousy is undignified, so we won’t belabor that point.

And we know well that questioning or challenging the college’s role as local taxpayer is heresy of the worst sort.  Their moral superiority, as expressed in numerous ‘study concentrations’ of cultural enlightenment, more than compensates for any lack of financial load sharing with the local beneficiaries of their presence.

So what we are about to say should be considered off the record; the views of an inconsiderate, uninformed, and insensitive local gadfly.  With such a freeing confession, here we go.

• Any enterprise that makes 22% plus on its investment assets in a single year should be ashamed to claim ‘non-profit’ status, if not prohibited from doing so.  Especially when those assets are in the range of several times their annual operating expenses.
• Any such enterprise whose fair market appraised value would likely increase the total valuation of their home-town by 50% or more is not living up to their tacit obligation to share in the costs of the services from which they benefit.
• Any such enterprise that is prone to poor-mouth its ability to participate financially in specific economic activities with their home town discredits and undermines their self-professed ‘responsible citizen’ status.

“Fair Share” anyone?  We can’t help but wonder what the aggregate income and net worth of all living Bowdoin alumni who meet the current administration’s guidelines for ‘wealthy’ would be.  And what their ‘fair share’ tax burden would amout to.  Has anyone heard George Mitchell step before a microphone and ask to be taxed more lately?

Charities and Churches are one thing.  Elite colleges awash in wealthy alumni, stunningly valuable real-estate and facilities, and huge stores of rapidly growing financial assets disgrace the very concept of non-profit status.

And even more, dishonor it.  And those that do are sons-a-bitches, and we shouldn’t put up with it. 

Lucky for us, Bowdoin College is OUR son of a bitch. So we shouldn’t really get our tassels in a knot.

Postlude

Geez, I’m one long-winded SOB.  But at least I realize it.  When I started this post, I had intended it to be short and sweet, but it seems I’m incapable of such brevity.  The more I write, the more thoughts emerge, so the more I write, and well, you get the drift.

No wonder town councilors cringe when I show up at a meeting, and have a group case of the vapors if I approach the public podium with papers in hand.

Oh well; somebody’s got to hold the local blowhard extraordinaire office.  That is what they called me, wasn’t it?

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