When the State of Colorado came looking for “shovel ready” projects to include for funding in the federal “stimulus” package, Loveland’s City Manager apparently tried to include the Crossroads and I-25 intersection.
If you reference our story on the front page (LovelandPolitics.com) you will see a link to the list of projects the McWhinney’s special Metro District agreed to fund in-exchange for 25 years of approximately 600 million city tax dollars. Crossroads is on that list.
Don Williams destroyed any chance for the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) by trying to relieve McWhinney of these obligations by placing similarly funded projects on the list of unfunded projects. Greeley and Ft. Collins discovered the impropriety of using the RTA to subsidize one powerful special interest and withdrew. Loveland only needed to place transportation projects on the list that were not already slated for funding but Loveland refused thus collapsing the goodwill coalition
The City of Loveland is often referred to at regional meetings as “McWhinneyville” since the management acts like lobbyists for McWhinney instead of people representing the citizens of Loveland
Please take a moment and reference the list of “regional improvements” the McWhinneys and the City of Loveland used to sell their enormous tax deal with the city. Now, only four years later they are doing everything they can to get out from under the obligations. Shouldn’t we also ask that they reduce their share of the sales taxes as well?
Disgusting! Has that McWhinney puppet Williams declared when he’s retiring? If I remember right, this website did a story on his thinly veiled attempt to get the City of Loveland to pay for his healthcare costs after retirement, and I believe it was shot down by Council shortly afterwards. Loveland has some of the slimiest gov’t officials since Tammany Hall. It will be a great day when he and his cronies go away. They should go to jail, but I’ll settle for away.
Wow! How come neither the Reporter-Herald nor “Loveland Connection” have ever told this story?
Well, thanks for telling it; nice to know someone is doing actual investigative reporting around here. But why aren’t the commercial media doing it?
What the McWs have done is classic “bait and switch”. But you gotta hand it to them…they’ve continually played this Manager and Council (or most of them) for CHUMPS. Absolute stooges! Tell me who else in this state has managed to walk away with $700 million in our taxes for their private empire? And they did it with mere promises…and allowed over time to walk away from those!
Someday when the $100 million is revealed how McWhinney spent it people who defend him will be very sorry.
Loveland management is saying lay-offs are needed but nobody is counting the actual cost of McWhinneyville. Most people in Loveland pay more property taxes to the county and city than all of McWhinney’s properties.
Crossroads is one more slight of hand. Really the MPO and Stimulus are funding another road project McWhinney promised to fund with our tax dollars he is receiving.
These big schemes to create debt and defer payment while the developer buys yachts in Mexico is absurd. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Don Williams and his other auto mechanics running our city are the city employees who really need to be laid-off.