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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Bed Tax Bureaucracy
Cowtown’s itching to get into the hotel bidness, and Static’s atwitter with the possibilities — Becky Haskin as the Leona Helmsley of Fort Worth, Jim Lane its Donald Trump, and Chuck Silcox its Jack Torrance (OK, that last hostelry reference is obscure; Torrance is the hotel caretaker portrayed by Jack Nicholson in The Shining). But critics want to take the fun out of the idea, whining about taxpayer dollars at risk. If the hotel doesn’t meet exaggerated predictions, the city might have to dip into its general fund to offset debt. Naysayers should also consider already-spent taxpayer dollars. The Tarrant County College district shelled out $1 million earlier this year to improve its downtown administration building, even though the site is pegged as the prime spot for the city hotel.
And why does an entrepreneur who led his own business into a financial rat-hole think residents want him to apply his business sense to a hotel venture on their nickel? Mayor Kenneth Barr’s family printing business ran up about $90,000 in delinquent property taxes, and he’s the city official crowing loudest about building a $130 million convention hotel at the expense of downtown hotel owners who shouldn’t have to compete against their own government in private business.
You and What Armey?
Belo Corp. is crying about how U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey wants to make them sell one of their North Texas news companies. And Armey is spitting blood about how The Dallas Morning News, flagship of the Belo fleet, has been picking on his boy. Seems Scott Armey got skunked by voters in an Aug. 9 congressional runoff, and Papa blames The Snooze.
Static gleaned this account from The Washington Post. Under a headline announcing Armey’s plan to “Punish Hometown Paper,” the Post said the retiring congressman is “furious at how the Dallas Morning News covered his son’s failed congressional bid’’ and tried to slip language into an unrelated bill that would force “the newspaper’s parent company to sell one of its Dallas media companies.’’ Belo also owns WFAA-TV Channel 8 and the Denton Record Chronicle.
Static has no stake in this fight but recalls sage advice: “Never wrestle with a pig; you both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
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