There will come a time for a blog post that laughs at the fact that obstructionist lawsuits are continually brought in Buffalo by the same, small roster of professional obstructionist plaintiffs. This is not that time.
Instead, this is a post about hypocrisy.
Yet another lawsuit has been brought in Buffalo to block a massive construction project. In this instance, a lawsuit brought by, among others, Mark Goldman, Scot Fisher, Bruce Fisher, and others. (Artvoice seems to have a disproportionately high number of its columnists end up as named plaintiffs in these types of laws…. oh, I forgot that this isn’t the time for that post).
This group of local progressive types are using the same legal rationale as Jim Ostrowski’s pending lawsuit that just got permission by the Court of Appeals to hop the pre-Answer “motion to dismiss” hurdle. Namely, that the state constitution prohibits outlaying public money to a private entity for any reason whatsoever – public or private.
But Scot Fisher, one of the named plaintiffs in the case, is the CEO of Ani DiFranco’s Babeville syndicate. Babeville is the new name for the renovated Asbury Delaware Church, which is a privately owned structure, which now houses a wholly private corporate entity. The church’s renovation, incidentally, came at a price for taxpayers.
Financing
The total project cost approximately $12.4 million and created 30,000 square feet of commercial space. Financing was achieved through a complex mix of public and private streams with HSBC as the equity investor. Project lenders included the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp. and Delaware Lender, LLC. Sources of funding included:
- $4.55 million in New Markets Tax Credits including historic tax credits made possible after the building was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 2003.
- $2.7 million from the City of Buffalo
- $440,000 for interior renovations raised from Hallways independently
- New York State Empire Zone incentives, such as sales tax exemptions and utility rate savings
- Thirty year “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” which allows for all new real estate tax generated by the property to be channeled back into the project.
- $350,000 from the EPA for geothermal heating and cooling technology
Because Babeville is associated with Ani DiFranco, a trendy, successful Buffalo export, no one ever bothered to complain – much less file suit – against Babeville or DiFranco for taking public money for a private purpose. Now, someone will undoubtedly make the argument that the preservation of an historically significant downtown church accomplished an equally significant public purpose, thus justifying the outlay of public money. That may very well be true. But the same “public benefit” argument can be made for Canal Side and Bass Pro. But because Bass Pro is not a lefty folk singer, but a Southern big-box fishing and hunting retailer, it does not enjoy the support of the Scot Fishers of the world.
The point is that the whole affair is quite palpably hypocritical.
The Buffalo Record 
Well said.
Wait a minute here, Alan. Both you and Bruce are Lenihan/Hoyt lovers. This crticism of your fraternity brother pal violates the club rules.
BTW, Gander Mountain has a national corporate policy of not accepting corporate pork. You would know that if you had attended the meeting Golombek sponsored at Babeville.
Thanks for your literal interpretation of a joke headline!
Surprisingly lucid point, Pundit. What a fun double standard.
This is silly. There’s no hypocrisy here. People like Goldman and Fisher thought that one project deserved support while the other didn’t. The fact that “the same “public benefit” argument can be made for Canal Side and Bass Pro” doesn’t mean that the argument is persuasive. Nobody is required to support all projects or oppose all projects in order to avoid hypocrisy. It’s possible to support some and oppose others on their merits.
This is the most pure form of hypocrisy I can imagine. Your argument would have merit if these yahoos said “We don’t like rednecks, but we do like hippies. Hippies should get money, but not inbreds.” But they don’t. Lawsuits have to be based on legal opinion, not personal preference. And the legal opinion they cite is that no NYS money can go to any private group. ANY private group. Except their’s, obviously.
If they actually believed that public funding for private projects was wrong, then they would be hypocrites for opposing it here and accepting it when it benefited them. But this lawsuit isn’t an indication of their beliefs, as you point out. It’s a tactic. I doubt they think they can win the case, either. It’s a tactic. They’re using the legal system to buy more time for the deal to fall apart. That may be cynical, but it isn’t hypocritical.
So your defense is that they are not simple hypocrits because they are really devoid of moral principles, and are duplicitious (a nice word for liars) about their intent? Or are they doubly hypocrits because they declare Bass Pro’s subsidy to be “morally corrupt,” when obviously they lack the same morals? Unless of course, they ends (smack down of redneck fishermen and the denial of low paying jobs to the unemployed) justifies the means?
They have a goal to block Bass Pro and they’re advancing that goal using a legal strategy has the best chance of winning them their case. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s lawyerin’. You find the best way to get your client what they want. I can’t fault them for that.
From what I’ve heard however, they are pretty big douchebags about just how much access they give the public to the church the public renovated for them. This is purely going off of what I’ve heard though the grapevine but throwing an event at that venue is next to impossible if it’s not a very specific type of event. Promoters have told me they wanted to use the Church to bring in big name electronic acts but were denied because they don’t want that kind of music there. I’m pretty sure the EDM community paid the same tax rate as fans of crappy acoustic ‘whine rock’ but apparently, that’s all they’ll book. In a city with a tiny number of venues equipped to handle large EDM events, having the one publicly financed venue flat out ban them is pretty hypocritical when they were glad to spend our tax dollars building the place. Like I said, I’ve only heard this from promoters who love to talk shit to begin with but the lack of events in general at the place is telling.
I must take issue with whether the Di Franco renovation of the church is legal or the sponsors are hypocritical. The two are not compatible.
I recall looking over that structure with a distinctly bulging wall and obviously poor mortar problems and guessed that wisdom would win over celebrity and a different structure would emerge. Aha but this is Buffalo and Ani brought oxygen to the decayed flesh and the tax payers will pay for the Zombie forever.
imagine this occurring in a county that working Mothers fail to get child support so mothers can work.
But what the heck Ani, et al, must have space to cavort in and an army of Lawyers to guarantee it. We have the culture we deserve.
@Hap – Huh? Can you, er… make that comprehensible?
This type of surreptitious spending by the state guarantees that special interests will be served and bad choices will be made.
Speaking of Sales Tax exemptions, Isn’t Fisher involved in the Genesee Gateway Project?
http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/07/14/daily38.html
No. Triangle (Fisher) owns or owned properties at the western end of the block, that are not included in the current Genesee Gateway project. There has been talk of the G.G. developers to acquire Triangle’s properties (which I can’t remember if that ever happened).