Editor’s note: This opinion piece is by Chris Campion, a resident of Essex Junction, and a contributor to Vermont Tiger, a conservative blog that is no longer in operation.
The Burlington mayor and city council appear helpless in addressing the fiscal mess at city hall. The city leaders “borrowed” $17 million from Burlington’s cash pool to prop up Burlington Telecom, but now Burlington Telecom can’t repay the city.
To fix a problem that the taxpayer did not create, the mayor and the city council want Burlington’s property taxpayers to close their eyes, shut their mouths, and cover their ears while voting for a new $9 million “fiscal stability bond,” all so the city can cover its liabilities.
Asking taxpayers to cough up more money to cover the City’s Adventures in Telecoms may be the easy way out for them, but it’s the hard way out for the taxpayer.
Here’s an alternative:
In May 2010, the Roman Catholic Diocese in Burlington paid a large financial settlement involving a case of sexual abuse by priests. Shortly thereafter, and to pay the $17.6 million settlement, Bishop Salvatore Matano announced the diocese would sell its 32.4-acre diocesan headquarters on North Avenue. Fair enough. The property was valued by the city at nearly $20 million, and there’s a reason: It’s a beautiful property, with a commanding view of Lake Champlain, frontage on the bike path, its own beach on the lake and has the only zoning in the city designated as “waterfront residential – medium density”. Arguably, the Diocese headquarters had to be considered one of the most valuable, and underdeveloped, properties in Vermont.
Despite these advantages, the headquarters site was sold to Burlington College, a tiny nonprofit educational institution for only $10 million, comprised of $6.5 million from bank loans and $3.5 million deferred payment by the Diocese. According to public documents, the bank financing this deal appraised the fair market value of the property not less than $16.5 million. At the time, the President of Burlington College was none other than Jane Sanders, wife of Senator Bernie Sanders. Former City Budget Director Jonathan Leopold, whose wife worked at Burlington College, was a member of the College’s Board of Trustees and its Treasurer. During this sale to Burlington College, there wasn’t a peep from City Hall urging that this property contribute to Burlington’s tax base.
As a result, this spectacular and valuable piece of property sits mostly idle, contributing little to the property tax base of Burlington, given the nonprofit status of Burlington College. Burlington College, with only $2.8 million in annual revenues (as of 2009), had a business plan to develop the 32.4-acre property to support 200 to 300 students. As a point of comparison, Champlain College supports over 2,000 students on its 22 acre campus.
Rather than urge Burlington’s taxpayers to support higher property taxes for their “fiscal stability bond,” maybe it’s time for the mayor and city council to roll up their sleeves and urge Burlington College to develop the property consistent with its zoning potential. The parcel is certainly big enough to serve the modest needs of Burlington College and add taxable medium density residential property to Burlington’s grand list. The city could engage with Burlington College in a joint planning effort to develop the property.
Given the special qualities of the former Diocese headquarters property, if city hall spent a fraction of the time working for its higher and better use as it spent trying to develop the Moran Plant, Burlington could both increase the city’s tax base and pay its bills without asking for a Burlington Telecom bailout from taxpayers.
I urge city voters to vote against the “fiscal stability bond” come election day.