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Editorials
Not all that tempts your wandering eyes and heedless
hearts is lawful prize; Nor all that glitters, gold.
--Thomas Gray
So far as I could see, there were no city or county legislators at the Bass Pro press conference. This is strange, as both legislatures must approve this deal as it involves the expenditure of public money and in the case of the city, the transfer of ownership of Memorial Auditorium. Why then is this being presented as a fait accompli? As a done deal?
My theory is the powers that be want the public to think it’s a done deal in order to box in any recalcitrant legislators who would then appear as undoing a done deal rather than merely doing their jobs of studying a proposal before they vote. If I am correct, I guess this means that the power elite thinks we are stupid. Fellows, I can smell this Machiavellian tactic a mile away. Just because these guys, and they are all guys, are rich and powerful doesn’t mean they have any more brain cells than we plain folk do.
There is a larger point here that deserves separate mention. The snubbing of the legislative branch in this instance speaks volumes about the current mode of governance in this republic. In a republic, the legislature is the preeminent branch or at the very least is equal in power and prerogative to the executive. Big government destroys this ancient republican principle.
Under big government, the executive has most of the power because he has the most employees, and because he spends the money. The political power of the executive usually overwhelms the legislators. In modern machine politics, power is measured by jobs. The Mayor controls perhaps 750; the Common Council has maybe 100. His political action committees control more money, an acid test of power these days.
Under today’s machine/special interest politics, a politics I savage in my book “Political Class Dismissed”, our executives begin to resemble the emperors and kings of ancient and medieval times that it was the main point of republican revolutions to replace. We’ve gone full circle when these executives simply announce the expenditure of public funds by fiat.
We are being told that Bass Pro will invest at least $57 million in this project. A little bird told me that this figure is bogus and the more I think about it, the more I think my fine-feathered friend may be onto something. Of course, the memorandum of understanding, if there is one, hasn’t been made available, so such speculation is unavoidable.
Let’s see now. The city and county (or is it the state?) will spend millions gutting and rehabilitating the old Aud. Then, presumably Bass Pro will come in with their interior designers and such. Can that possibly cost more than $5 million? Then come the fixtures and shelving and so on for another $3 million. That brings us to $8 million. Okay, I’ll give you another $2 million for hiring costs, relocating managers and advertising. That brings us to $10 million total. I can’t wait until some better bean counter than me explains what the rest of the investment will consist of. As for a hotel and restaurant, it is unclear who is paying for those and how much.
This intermodal transportation thing sounded a lot better before I started thinking about what it could possibly mean. I guess it’s a way for our area’s three failed government-controlled mass transit monopolies to meet in one grand intersection of bureaucratic failure. Yes, Amtrak will meet the subway and NFTA buses all in one place. So all the people who want to travel from UB’s Main St. campus to downtown and onto downtown Depew will no longer be held back.
Right now, the Amtrak station is about 200 yards from the subway. (The Amtrak rail line actually runs directly under the subway line.) But why not spend $15 million to bring them to within, say, 50 yards. Sounds like a plan! That way, the throngs of people who don’t ride the subway can easily transfer to the NFTA buses and Amtrak trains they never use. Now I understand.
Now, let me deal with the notion that we must spend this money or it will go elsewhere. This argument is the last refuge of a policy wonk bankrupt of ideas. And a childish refuge it is too. It reminds me of how when we were kids, the five of us would eat all the cookies Mom bought at the supermarket, lest the other kids gobble them up first.
This argument pertains only to $31 million of the $66 million that is coming from the feds. The city and county share, truly a figment of someone’s imagination since both are broke, obviously can’t go elsewhere. Nor can the state’s share since all agree this mysterious pile of money has been allocated to Buffalo.
What about the federal share? Why is that not also allocated somehow to Buffalo? Are our fearless leaders not admitting that the way federal money is spent is utterly arbitrary and capricious? Why can’t this money be used for a tax cut or for some general purpose that would benefit the entire area?
And if we do take this money for this project, we are committing ourselves to paying for part of every pork barrel project in the United States for the foreseeable future. The politicians don’t tell us about that. Again, they think we’re too stupid to figure this out. Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s stop this nonsense of the feds taxing us for things that are no business of the federal government and let’s keep the money in our own pockets and I won’t have to answer all these silly questions.
This Bass Pro thing is supposed to be drowning Buffalo’s life jacket. Why then shall we remain struggling and gurgling in the water until sometime in 2007? Make that 2008 as these things go. This is yet another proof of the absurdity of relying on politicians and bureaucrats to save us. Four years of construction, delays, closed roads. Stack that on top of the two years that this was in the planning stages at the usual bureaucratic glacial pace.
All to build a sporting goods store that, in a truly free market, could be built by the private sector in six months or less. Is this big box, slow motion, paper pushing, pocket-picking, maddeningly complex mode of development really the answer? If so, what the heck is the question? How do we keep Buffalo on its steady pace of post-1950s decline? Yes, I am a naysayer to this kind of silliness and stupidity.
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