March 01, 2009

Hand-it-over Theatre should give Foothills 200K

Considering the fact Hanover Theatre has received:

  • 3,000,000 from the Hanover Insurance
  • 200,000 of permitting fees waived by the City of Worcester
  • property values locked in at the assessed value pre construction for 8 years
  • 14,300,000 from the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation
  • 15,850,000 in New Market tax credits
  • 1,000,000 from Mass Development

Click here for the story titled "Worcester Performing Arts Center Gets $30,000,000 Million for Theater Rehab" for more details. What is 200,000????

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I AM PERPLEXED. WHY WOULD A THEATRE get $14M from the Mass Housing Investment people? I thought it was a theater, not a house and Good God, I thought $600,000 to rehab and move a Main South 3 decker was alot of "housing" money.

Bill one "subsidy" item that you forgot to mention, although not technically a subsidy in the true sense of the word, is that the city fathers forgot (or opted not to) to put a clause in their agreemtn with The Hand It Over Theater that would have precluded them from placing the real estate in a non profit holding company ONLY FOR THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE of beating the City & therefore the taxpayers who underwrote all the above subsidies out of millions more.

If $30M was spent on The Hand It Over Rehab.......then let's just say conservatively the real estate is now worth $25M and the commercail property tax rate is what...??.. $30 per $1,000 of valuation........so thats 25,000 x $30 = $750,000 PER YEAR that's PER YEAR......that's annually for you Worc. Public School grads.... that the city has left on the table by letting the Hand It OVer Theatre real estate slip into non prfit status.......which by the way is supposedly only for 10 years.... Ya right.....!!!! This $750,000 non expense for the Hand It over will be a subsidy into perpetuity for who have culturally enriched the city of late.

Someone has got to bring this to light given the dire financial straits that Worc in now. Sean.........Diane......Nick....????.......your time to run with this ball

Lord, the city labor honcho's should lay this item on the table when they are being coerced by city hall to forego raises. And where the hell is the city council on this issue too........stabbing the city taxpayers in the back with 2.5" knives and 4 foot wide snow shoveling ordinances??

Something has to be done about this.... !!!!!

ANd it just hit me that we're also subsizing the parking for the Hand It Over with discounted rates at the Fed'l Sq parking Garage....city even spruced the place all up the grand opening last March (??) was it?

Unless I am missing something here, i just went to city's website looking for the assessed value of 2 Southbridge (The Hand It Over) and All I can find is a $535,000 piece of land?? Usually all property in the city.......taxable or not.......non profit or not is listed as asssessed by the city assessor.....w/o re: to if it's taxable or not. Donde' the Hanovers Assessement?

Also time for city councilors to give back their 88% pay raise of a year ago.

Anonymous said...

We can give The Hand I t Over artsie fartisie crowds practically gratis parking.....many of whom are from out of town and I have to pay to park at the airport.......pay to park at Coney Island hot dogs......pay to park at the lie-berry........and I also have to pay my residential roperty taxes, too.

Gimme Parity or Gimme Death

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