Lincoln raising questions about fair contribution

 36 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

Now that the Nebraska State Fair is scheduled to move to Grand Island, questions are being raised about the city of Lincoln funneling money from a tight budget to a matching fund for the fair.

Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler wants more answers before the city’s next contribution comes due in July.

And Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek is asking Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning for guidance on when Lincoln’s obligation will end — and if the city can attach strings to how its money is spent in the meantime.

[+]Enlarge

(LJS file)

(LJS file)

“Mayor Beutler and I did have a discussion about all this,” Schimek said Thursday. “There’s a genuine question, a legitimate question — at what point is the baton passed on?”

Beyond the Legislature’s April vote to move the fair to Grand Island, the foundation for the local fact-finding mission is Amendment 4, passed by voters in 2004.

The amendment routed 10 percent of annual proceeds from the Nebraska Lottery to the fair budget and also required the host city to leverage that money with a 10 percent contribution of its own.

Since 2005, the lottery infusion has grown toward $3 million, and the city’s match has grown toward $300,000 a year.

More recently, Beutler said Thursday, his constituents have been asking him if Lincoln is providing money that will be spent at Fonner Park in Grand Island.

In an exchange of letters with Fair Board Chairman Jerry Fitzgerald, Beutler summed things up this way:

“In short, Lincolnites want to be sure that during these tight budget times locally, the City is not in the position of funding the Fair Board’s efforts to accumulate its ‘share’ of the relocation expenses. They do not want to fund the fair’s move to Grand Island.”

In his June 16 reply, Fitzgerald said there’s no reason for Lincoln to worry about getting its money’s worth during the fair’s remaining two years at State Fair Park.

“On behalf of the State Fair Board, I am happy to assure you that it will.”

He went on to cite annual payrolls adding up to about $5 million for those two years and a $250,000 retention package meant to keep employees on the payroll until Dec. 31, 2009.

On Wednesday, the fair board offered up additional numbers that show, among other things, $200,000 in projected purchases from Lincoln media to promote the 2008 fair and other events, and almost $370,000 in food and beverage purchases from local firms in 2007 for resale on the fairgrounds.

Barney Cosner, the fair’s executive director, also stepped up to amplify Fitzgerald’s message.

“They’re not going to pay for anything that’s going to happen in Grand Island,” Cosner said. “You’ve got to remember that the 2008 fair and the 2009 fair are occurring right here at State Fair Park in Lincoln.”

Cosner conceded the fair board had accumulated about $2.5 million in reserves for purposes that include “larger, capital construction improvements.”

The move to Grand Island also requires the fair board to come up with $7 million of a $42 million package meant to move the fair and allow the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to convert the fairgrounds into a technology campus.

But a Lincoln contribution of perhaps $600,000 over the next two years “will get used up” on local costs.

“I don’t think Lincoln got shortchanged at all,” Cosner said.

In the Amendment 4 era, “They annexed the property in the city and they get sales tax off the venue now.”

Sales taxes from the fairgrounds, according to Cosner, added up to $34,300 for all events in 2007 and about $17,700 for the fair itself.

Beutler said he expects to have more conversations with fair officials.

He said the city’s inquiries are not based on any thoughts about withholding its match, a move that could block access to lottery funds.

“We’re not threatening anybody.”

As Beutler sees it, “the Legislature has made its decision and we need to go along in good faith.”

Schimek said her questions to Bruning are about when Lincoln’s contribution can stop and about the possibility of the city being able to restrict how its money is spent.

“I would be amenable and I think it’s appropriate for Lincoln to continue its donation as long as the fair is in Lincoln.”

Before the passage of Amendment 4, fair officials held a press conference to offer their vision of how they might spend the lottery money.

Included in the vision were artists’ renderings of a new livestock show building, a new exhibit hall/event center, a new grandstand and a new mile-long track for horseracing — all in Lincoln, not Grand Island.

But state Sen. Phil Erdman, the man most responsible for the state fair-university outcome in the last legislative session, brushed aside suggestions that Lincoln residents are now paying for somebody else’s vision.

Furthermore, Lincoln’s investment is 10 percent of 10 percent.

The lottery money comes from all Nebraskans.

“So they have $300,000 a year that’s going to State Fair Park, to a matching fund. Tell me what you can buy in improvements for $300,000 for the next two years.”

Reach Art Hovey at 473-7223 or ahovey@journalstar.com.