Louisville Arena Fiasco

This is a great post I recently found on one of the local sites where a local pretty much called out Louisville and its idiotic politicians. I don't agree with everything but its pretty good analysis of calling out the clowns in Louisville government.

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Considering that Louisville has spent the better part of the last 20 years throwing away money that should have been spent on community necessities like roads, infrastructure, sewers, water, electrical maintenance its not going to get any better with the present regime. Of course, good ole Jerry hoodwinked the Louisville public into building a new basketball arena along with Tommy Turtleneck. Slick Rick, Jim Host and then Fischer took the reins. Everyone was all in marching and pecking order to make sure that a 350 million dollar arena was needed. Not to mention the millions they expected from the TIF financing that never quite materialized because the downtown bars and restaurants were dropping like flies in the large part of the decade. It might be a little bit better now in 2020 but wait until the next economic downturn hits in the next decade and you'll hear a squawling that sounds like someone being castrated.

350 million dollars for an arena and the bonds were sold to the public and investors by Goldman Sachs, some of the most financially dishonest people on the planet. That were involved up to their eyeballs in the 2008 financial crash and the resulting damage to the US economy when the housing bubble and stock market bubble exploded in the years of 2006 to 2011 and millions of jobs were lost. It will happen again as well because the central bankers and the Jamie Dimons and the rest of the banking central government officials around the world are living on borrowed time and huge amounts of borrowed debt. In fact, the debt how is 247 trillion dollars around the world which is 10 times that of the current US federal debt of 23.5 trillion.

Of course, the Hokies down in Louisville and with the city and state government from Papaw Steve to Ernie Felcher to Mayor McCheese to the U of L clowns all were in just as long as they didn't have to pay the debt. So instead, they passed it onto the taxpayers of Louisville because the Arena Authority finally had to admit that they weren't going to be able to pay interest of 15 to 20 million per year from 2010 to 2040 and then 17.5 million in principal over 20 years starting in 2020. Which is why the maturation and length of the bonds was refinanced so Louisville residents would have to pay for this white elephant until 2054 by which it will be 44 years old by then. That's some great strategic thinking of the various public officials and financial gurus in Louisville. By 2054, U of L will have pulled out and left the Yum Center and there still probably won't be an NHL or NBA team no matter how many of the professional head greasers experimenting with battery acid think that its going to happen. Probably not unless some ultra rich billionaire comes to Louisville to start or purchase an existing team.

Then again, that's Louisville which has been giving the Arena Authority anywhere from 7 million to 15 million a year for the better part of the decade plus trying to bail out from all of the public lawsuits over police brutality, public corruption, government malfeasance and such. Not exactly a winning formula for a city that is also about 4 billion in the hole for sewer debt made up by the MSD, Abramson and his handpicked lieutenants like Bud Schardein. Add in the fact that Louisville needs billions more just to fix the current system and it speaks volumes to the massive amounts of the money that will end up being wasted away because of malfeasance, mismanagement and downright government corruption. Which is why you have problems funding nonprofits, etc.