Letter to the Editor:
March 9, 2008
I can understand Sammy Waldrop’s frustration with the Applebee’s
deal falling through; nine months of work to get Applebee’s to
the point of approaching the full city council, and then the
deal falls through.
However, and this is a big point, with all due respect to Sammy,
these local restaurant and other business owners have put years,
and many thousands of dollars of their own money into their
projects, and certainly have a right to speak out about the
actions of the CDA.
I know that major industries have received subsidies from state
and local governments to move to a particular locale. Since they
are legitimately bringing jobs into the community, eventually
the states will hopefully receive the cost of their subsidies
returned, in the form of increased income and sales taxes.
Applebee’s in the form presented to the city would have received
a subsidy that would not have paid off for 20 years. And it
would have put other businesses under. Even a spin off, such as
a motel with it, would have created only a few more jobs. They
would have one or two shift managers, a small cleaning staff,
and perhaps a lawn service. Would they have expected a similar
deal from the city?
Unlike the state, the city has no income tax, nor other way of
recouping the abated taxes. We would simply have another chain
restaurant, competing at an unfair advantage with locally owned
and operated restaurants.
I realize that the Commercial Development Authority is a
separate entity, but the council makes appointments. The council
should provide the CDA with guidelines that will benefit our
local economy. Those could include using local banks, buying
building materials through local businesses on a bid basis, and
providing the community with aspects of what the business will
provide.
Applebee’s didn’t offer anything other than a restaurant, and
right up front we were given false figures on the number of jobs
to be expected. Yet they wanted many thousands of dollars from
tax revenues and the savings of having the CDA build the
building and lease it to the corporation.
The budget they presented allowed $100,000 in fees to simply
float the bonds of approximately two million dollars. From
looking at the proposal, it appears that someone would have
profited nicely from selling the property to the CDA. And of
course the jobs figure they quoted was completely unrealistic.
Our city draws from a larger area than just our town limits.
There is the argument that Wal-Mart has increased the city’s
income by drawing people from outside our city, even though many
businesses in our city have gone under because they cannot
compete with the buying power of a gigantic corporation. The
city has lost the tax revenue from those businesses, as well as
the jobs they provided. The industries that produced the
products purchased there, then went to China and we lost all
those jobs.
If a shopping center developer wants to provide incentives to
retailers to draw them in, that is their prerogative, but when
we start talking city tax dollars, all of us are involved.
All this talk of not having anything to offer to business is a
false one. We have one of the best school systems in the state.
We have a beautiful location, a low cost of living, and many
good people with a tremendous work ethic. We also have a much
higher income level than many other small cities. Let’s make our
school system the best in the state, and then you have a real
selling point.
The people of Arab voted over a year ago not to legalize alcohol
sales. That was their choice. Perhaps they will vote to legalize
sales in the next election. Who knows? We as a city will have to
make do until then with the best resources we have. Our schools,
our parks and our people are great selling points. Check out the
Retail and Restaurant Guide put out by the committee. I think
you’ll be surprised by the excellent choices, and the large
number of restaurants we have in our area.
Sincerely,
Cliff Griggs
Arab, AL
