Comments on: CHAMBER PRESIDENT TO SPEAK IN MIDTOWN ON FORD CENTER VOTE http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2008/02/18/chamber-president-to-speak-in-midtown-on-ford-center-vote/ The Oklahoman's Steve Lackmeyer covers downtown OKC brick by brick. Thu, 16 May 2013 02:42:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 By: Christopher K. Gibson http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2008/02/18/chamber-president-to-speak-in-midtown-on-ford-center-vote/comment-page-1/#comment-62 Christopher K. Gibson Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:38:35 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2008/02/18/chamber-president-to-speak-in-midtown-on-ford-center-vote/#comment-62 Dear Citizens of Oklahoma City,
I just wanted to pass on to you my thoughts regarding the proposed 1 cent sales tax extension that WE the voters of Oklahoma City will decide on this March 4th. First I would like to know why is it that Clay Bennett and the other owners of the Sonics feel they shouldn’t risk investing their own money for the needed upgrades to the Ford Center. Won’t the owners reap the most benefits from those upgrades. I know I personally won’t see a penny of the income generated from those upgrades so why should I pay for them? And if an NBA franchise really does have the economic impact claimed by Mayor Cornett and the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce than it looks to me to be a whole lot of return for not that much of an investment, relatively speaking of course. Also, if the taxpayers are to finance this new NBA practice facility, will it be available for use by anyone else (like the OU Sooners or for Big 12 or NCAA tournament teams) and if not then why should we pay for it? And lastly, how stupid does the Mayor think the people of Oklahoma City really are? In the last statement the Mayor makes in his commercial supporting the sales tax extension initiative he says “And the best part of it is it won’t raise taxes.” Really? Well according to my understanding if a 1 cent sales tax, when first passed, raises, let’s say just for the sake of argument, $200,000,000.00 over 2 years, and then you extend that by one year to raise another $100,000,000.00 then the taxpayers have paid $100,000,000.00 more than originally proposed – that sounds like a tax increase to me.
Honestly, this sounds to me to be another example of another greedy bunch of rich guys praying on the taxpayers to shoulder all the investment ( in other words to take all the risk) so the rich guys can pocket all the profits without having to invest their own money to do it. Well if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck than it’s probably a duck, wouldn’t you say? Sounds like corporate welfare to me. Instead of looking to the taxpayers shouldn’t they be looking for more investors, just like I had to for my business ventures?
Oh, and by the way, I thought Oklahoma City was already a world class city. I’ve only traveled halfway around the world but I’ve seen many cities and Oklahoma City is where I decided to settle down and raise my family. I love Oklahoma City just the way she is and we certainly don’t need a professional sports team to “elevate us” to “world class status”. If that’s what you define as being a major league city than I say “No Thanks Sonics!!!”.

Sincerely,

Christopher K. Gibson

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