Medley Is A Golden Cow Too

I just read a not-too-surprising article on Congel Sr. and the Destiny "experience".  What makes this article a little different, is that it directly quotes Marc Malfitano, a former executive of the project for Destiny USA - and it plainly states what their intentions were and are.  

To milk the golden cow of taxpayer money as much as they could.

Here is the link to the article on Syracuse.com  - It is a great article and I recommend that you read it.

Inside planning Destiny USA: It was all about the "golden cow" of tax breaks.

Here are some snippets from the article:



  

<snip> In the interviews, Malfitano contends:

- Destiny planning was dominated by brainstorming ways to use taxpayers’ money to build the mall. The team spent less time talking about a successful business plan.

- They worked with a philosophy that nothing could get in the project’s way — not laws, financial hurdles or the practical difficulty of building something so big.

- The company never worried about opposition from City Hall; the Destiny team regarded the city as desperate for development.
Under clear-channeling, anyone who objected to any idea risked being fired, Malfitano said. He tried at least once and was rebuked, he said.

In the end, the process hindered clear thinking, he said.<snip>

<snip>Destiny’s meetings were dominated by the pursuit of government revenue streams, Malfitano said. The planners talked more about that than how to recruit hot new tenants, he said.
“Bob honestly felt that whatever these ideas were, there was some means of getting public funding to either make them happen or help make them happen,” Malfitano said.<snip>

<snip> All of Pyramid’s previous malls were the result of a common business model, Malfitano said: Make a budget, figure out rents, then see how much financing that could generate and raise enough money to build the project.
Destiny had no such business model, Malfitano said. Instead, it relied on tax breaks, such as Empire Zones, federal environmental bonds and the state brownfields program, he said.<snip>

<snip>“They were taking advantage of what was out there at the time and saying, ‘Holy mackerel, these programs are the golden cow,’” Malfitano said.<snip>

<snip>Destiny executives were told they needed to make contributions to the campaigns of politicians who were seen as potentially helpful to the project, Malfitano said. He recalls having to make a donation to the campaign of an out-of-state member of Congress.
Federal records show Malfitano made $200 contributions to two U.S. representatives from Connecticut and Kentucky in October 2003, while he was with Destiny. One was on the House’s appropriations committee. The other was on the transportation and infrastructure committee.
Malfitano said he recalls the politicians were involved in committees connected to green initiatives, and that Congel had had them as guests at his opulent hunting lodge in Wayne County and promised to round up financial support for them.
“Bob would expect you to do it,” and send Lorenz or Kenan around to ask for the contributions, Malfitano said. “They’d say, ‘We need a check.’ "<snip>

The Congels are doing what the politicians have allowed them to do - and we keep electing these same politicians to powerful positions that enable developers like the Congel family to reap millions in profits off the "golden cow" taxpayer's backs. 

COMIDA is as guilty as SIDA is for allowing this to happen.

Does anyone have any backbone to say "NO"?  Because, politicians are also allowed to say that to potential developments - especially ones that are so pie-in-the-sky unrealistic.  

How pathetic is it that our "leaders" are so desperate for development and campaign cash that they would allow the scam artists to take advantage of their constituents in this way?

What's even more pathetic is that I'm not surprised by it at all.

To view the archives of the Destiny USA project at Syracuse.com - please visit this link.

Sen. John DeFrancisco also penned an excellent article in Syracuse.com about how he was criticized constantly for questioning the merits of the PILOT deal for Destiny USA - and how everyone was caught up in the "grand ideas" and the "progress" of such a unique development - and not listening to his concerns, or dismissing them as "negative" and "against progress".  

We need to open our ears to the "negative" and "against progress" people more often - it could save the taxpayers from being milked dry by people such as the Congel family.

Happy to know there is at least ONE politician who is concerned about protecting the taxpayer and constituents from bad deals.

More articles:

Congel's expansion of the Carousel Center shopping mall, is eligible for an estimated $54 million in state income tax credits under the program.

New York state is reimbursing developer Robert Congel for almost $10 million a year in property taxes he does not pay on the Carousel Center mall.

Syracuse.com provides a handy tool to search their database of businesses in Empire Zones that claim tax credits under the program. You can search at this link.