Monroeville, Allegheny County and state officials are ecstatic that the Monroeville Convention Center (MCC) has been saved. But we are forced to wonder how long the euphoria will last – and if taxpayers are about to pay a steep price for yet another government-orchestrated perversion of the marketplace.
The convention center was scheduled to close on June 1. Private owner Oxford Development struck a deal with Hobby Lobby to take over a large chunk of the complex’s space. The balance of the space would have been made available to other, smaller retailers.
Oxford said it was not turning a profit at the convention center.
The move sent shockwaves through the community, a community soon after shocked again with news that a hotel that primarily served the center had abruptly shut down.
Never mind that the marketplace quickly moved to accommodate the loss of the convention space – at least one other Monroeville business stepped up to fill the void – government types and some community members mounted a campaign to save the MCC.
And Tuesday last, it was announced that Oxford and Hobby Lobby had agreed to terminate their deal and allow the community to figure out a way to keep the convention center running.
From a Post-Gazette story:
“The new proposal involves the operation of the convention center as a ‘long-term community asset’ hinging on a community- or government-based ownership plan or government-backed lease,” the newspaper reported.
“Details of the plan are ‘ongoing,’ according to the announcement, which said public officials had provided Oxford and Hobby Lobby with information showing the center’s importance to the community.”
Of course, there likely will be plenty of devils in those details.
“How much do you think this is going to cost taxpayers?” asks Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute.
Indeed. We can’t imagine Oxford handing it over to whatever new ownership there is for nothing, unless, that is, the new owner operates as a nonprofit and there’s some major tax benefit for Oxford.
But what if government becomes the owner? What kind of nonsense will come with that?
As Gamrat, a Ph.D. economist, further ponders, will costs be forced higher with a mandate that union labor be employed? Think forced payments of “prevailing wages.”
And along with that union labor, will onerous labor rules force vendors to pay higher fees? It’s darn near a sure bet.
And what of lost property tax revenue? Oxford was paying property taxes. So, too, would have Hobby Lobby and any other retailers that rounded out the building’s footprint.
How’s that revenue going to be made up? Even higher rental fees for vendors?
And what of the closed hotel? Will government facilitate the former or a new operator to reopen the facility? Or as Gamrat further ponders, will it commandeer it and put taxpayers in the hotel business, too?
Questions, questions, questions.
And how these questions are answered will determine if this will be a prudent public policy decision or just another in a long line of interventionist lies that, initially, and on the surface, will be appear be a great public policy “win” that turns into the kind of cluster cluck all too indigenous to such government interventions.
Or as Gamrat succinctly puts it:
“How long will it take government to screw it up?”
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
