The BID program proposes a staff of 14 employees to cover the downtown business district. What will these 14 employees be doing the three to four winter months when there are few visitors to Asheville downtown? In addition to the slack time in winter, during the rest of the year downtown is busy from Wednesday through Saturday. The rest of the week the downtown area is pretty empty of tourists and local visitors.
Can't the city achieve the same results as the BID proposes by hiring three to four additional staff members without the excessive costs that the current proposal entails?
Downtown Asheville is a recreation hub for the entire city of Asheville and Buncombe County. The majority of people who frequent downtown are Buncombe County residents. If additional money is needed to keep downtown clean, safe and green it should be borne by all the people who use it.
Furthermore, the BID proposal asks residents in the downtown business district to pay the same tax rate as businesses, in effect subsidizing businesses that are expected to have increases in sales revenue.
There are many fundamental shortcomings of the BID proposal: privatization of public service, an unrepresentative board of directors, excessive administrative/supervisory staff, lack of budgetary details and an unfair tax structure.
— Fred Guggenheim
Asheville
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Too little time to take on all the errors, so here's the most obvious ones.
State law REQUIRES that all property owners pay the same rate. Should the proponents have brought forward an illegal plan?
Not familiar with the author's vast business acumen, but the plan has 1 director and a part time office person overseeing all of the direct work being done in a $ 750,000 effort. Not sure that hits the excessive admin/supervisory level for anyone except, apparently, the author.
By indy499
07/24/2012