(Press)Mike McCloskey's Letter to the Editor NOTES FROM THE GENERAL MEETING OF AUGUST 9TH A small but interesting group met last Wednesday night at the Towne House for the General Meeting of the Media
Business and Professional Association.
(1) Ken Cutler (from Lee Stivale's office) spoke about the suit against the borough to repeal the Mercantile and Business Privilege tax. The borough has allocated $25,000.00 to defend itself and is attempting to have the suit dismissed on technical grounds rather than address the issues. (NOTE: The public notice announcing the tax increases in December stated, "It is anticipated less than $10,000. in additional revenues will be generated by the adoption of the amendments.")
Several of our members who are adversely affected by the new taxes are fearful of being included in the suit as they
anticipate some sort of retribution from council or the various commissions in the borough. Lee has assured us that
anyone being named as a plaintiff in the suit who is harassed by the borough will be protected by their firm. Harrassment under such circumstances constitutes a civil rights violation and any borough official committing such acts will be prosecuted vigorously. Many of us see the actions of the borough as harassing right now, with the zoning restrictions, tax policies, parking policies and development activities being implemented at a breakneck pace with no advance communication or consultation with the majority of business and property owners in our town.
Some members questioned whether the budget for the Media Business Authority would be affected by the suit. The
answer is yes. Council has already indicated that they would pull funding for the MBA if they loose the suit. The
workers, customers, business and commercial property owners pay over $3.5 million to the borough each year. In the
event MBA funding is pullled there are some alternative methods of financing business development.
(2) The zoning restrictions on State Street are still in effect. Even the 35 MB&PA members who came to July's Borough Council meeting did not deter the council from keeping the restrictions in effect. There are 14
vacancies on State Street and another 5 within 1 block (approximately 30,000 square feet), yet council wants more time to give it a chance to work. They have continually represented our association as the "negative" segment who don't have their vision of the "Big Picture". No new retailers have come into town since June 1999. Starbucks has backed out of coming to town. Two more State Street businesses are scheduled to close within 60 days.
Your association will survey all State Street business and property owners to determine how many are in favor of the
restrictions continuing.
Coming UP: Tomorrow night the Borough Council will declare their intention to condem a block of Baltimore Pike to
construct a parking lot. This will increase available parking for the unit blocks of both State Street and Baltimore Pike. In its first stage it will accomodate about 1/2 of the shortfall caused by Iron Hill Brewery. While most of us applaud their decision to finally do something about the parking problem they themselves have created, there are still many issues as to funding that may keep this project from affecting this adverse situation for quite a while. We will keep you informed as information is received.
BIZ-WATCH: Council may just try to push through their plan to remove up to fifteen spaces from Church Street to allow
for the outdoor deck at Iron Hill. Even though we've been promised that this issue will be publicly discussed prior to
implimentation, Council's method has been act first and handle the protest later. Let's all keep our eyes open.
"What we have here is a failure to communicate": Larry Houstoun, the author of the Atlantic Group studies has
refused to speak at a Media Business and Professional Association meeting. We wanted to ask questions about the
discrepancies between his written statements and Council's public interpretation of the studies. He claims that we are too negative. Larry did make a short statement at the July Council meeting, but we were prohibited by Council President Hagan from asking him questions and he left immediately after speaking. |
