Here is a 1992 letter-to-the editor. About a year after a proposal
to build a city swimming pool in a city park by Lake Monona was
defeated, there was a referrendum on the Frank Lloyd Wright-Monona
Terrace Convention Center. That passed, and the Convention Center
opened last weekend (July 19-20,1997).


Editor:  

     Last summer I was circulating petitions to put the Lake Shore
Preservation referendum to the voters. It was the only way to stop
the city from  building a swimming pool in Turville Woods.  Many of
my supporters in that effort think that a convention center on Lake
Monona is a similar mistake. Perhaps, but  this is an entirely
different matter.

         A swimming pool could be used for only a few months a year
(how often would you have used it this summer?) and could never pay
its own way. The proposed Wright convention center is both an all
season facility and a potential source of revenue for the area. It
will probably be rejected by the voters next month - not  because
it is not a good project but because  its supporters are not doing
the accounting/financing in a way to make it appeal to city
taxpayers.

        In the MADISON EDGE Chris MacIntosh describes the
convention center as a gamble the citizens shouldn't take. Maybe it 
will pay off and maybe it will not, he says.  But his article
misses the main point from the view of the city property tax payer;
namely that it is a no win situation. Even if the convention center
does well, the taxpayer loses. They pay for the convention center
but don't  share in the revenue it generates.

        But it could be otherwise, and like the lottery tax
credit,it is largely a matter of accounting.  Dane county has a
one-half percent sales tax and Madison has a hotel room tax, so the
"convention business" can make money.  The John Q. Hammons Holliday 
Inn Convention Center in Middleton is a convention center run for 
profit.

Why not let the citizens in on this with a property tax credit equal 
to some portion of the convention generated tax revenue?

        Perhaps the largest potential source of revenue from the
Wright convention center is the nearly 600 place parking ramp.
Current plans call for collecting about 0.5 million dollars per
year from parking. This is about one third the estimated operating
cost of the center but is less than $4 per day per parking space.
In a policy that defies common sense, the city seems determined not
to make money from downtown parking and instead uses parking ramps
to undercut the bus system and deprive would-be shoppers of parking
space at the same time.

       The city seems to think that it has a 'captive audience' in
the property tax payer - when they need money, raise property
taxes. But people can (and do) leave Madison to live in Verona, Sun
Prairie, etc. But Madison does have a source of revenue that cannot
leave: the state, county and city employees who work downtown.

       I suggest that the parking rates be restructured. Starting
with the street level floors of the ramps the rates should be free
for the first hour and then a dollar an hour with a $5 surcharge
for parking before 9 am. This would greatly benefit downtown
shopping and put downtown merchants on an equal footing with the
malls in competing for customers.
        
       With downtown parking priced to generate revenue, the Wright
center parking ramp could cover most of the operating expenses of
the facility. Rental fees plus sales and hotel room tax credits
would open the possibility that property tax payers and not just
downtown merchants might benefit if the convention business does
well.  Of course no one can guarantee that the credits will be
greater than the increase in property taxes needed to fund the
center. But Madison citizens would be much more likely to approve
the convention center referendum if they have a chance to benefit
directly from it.

                                         James E. Blair