To the voters of the Nederland Downtown Development District,
This year you have a very important decision to make in the upcoming April election. You are being asked to vote on a Debt Authorization proposed by the NDDA Board and the Board of Trustees. This Debt Authorization is for a total of $5,110,570, including interest.
I am asking the voters to consider voting AGAINST the debt authorization at this time for the following reasons:
The DRAFT Master Plan Update that is mentioned in the supporting documents is NEVER mentioned in the ballot language itself. The DDA Board has worked very hard to obtain public input for various projects and ideas for this plan, but has not presented it to the public in a timely fashion. It has not gone through the Nederland Planning Process, not been presented to the Planning Commission for a public hearing, and finally, not been approved by the Board of Trustees.
Therefore, there is nothing legally that compels the NDDA or the Board of Trusts to implement any of the ideas proposed to date – no matter how wonderful they make them sound.
In the information supplied by the DDA, they are asking the voters to approve this Debt Authorization for OVER $5 MILLION at an UNKNOWN INTEREST RATE, with repayment to a maximum amount of $255,000; yet they have clearly indicated that the amount of revenue The DDA receives each year has DECREASED from 2012 to 2016, possibly making this type of repayment impossible.
As successful business and property owners, would you give almost $3,000,000 of your hard-earned money for projects as yet not finalized, but are only in the idea stage? And indicating that the repayment costs might be larger than the income over the next 20 years? With NO indication of what the interest would be? This type of business contract would only lead to disappointment and, worse, to a possible serious financial situation for the Town of Nederland.
The Town of Nederland will be at minimum a co-signer on this debt, and possibly the only signer for the debt. That would make the Town responsible for the further repayment of between $2,900,000 and $5,100,000. This, without a doubt, would be a hardship, if not a bankruptcy, for the Town.
Many of us had asked both the NDDA Board and the Board of Trustees to postpone this election ballot measure until November, which would give the NDDA Board an opportunity to present the DRAFT Master Plan Update to the Planning Commission and the Board of Trustees, with proper public notification for public input. It would also allow the NDDA more time to (1) assess exactly how much money each project would cost; (2) to determine what a reasonable interest rate could be achieved; and (3) to analyze more exactly how much DDA income could be projected from the TIF financing over the next 20 years.
Thank you for reading. I hope you will see the importance of voting NO on this Ballot Measure in April. This would give the DDA more time to explain their plans to the electorate and provide more accurate wording for a Debt Authorization ballot measure in November that would designate the interest rate and tie the Approved Master Plan Update to the ballot language.
Pat Everson,
Former Chairman of the NDDA
