Pueblog USa
Monday, October 08, 2007
Citizens Against the Convention Center expansion—Press Statement
Release to the media asking that the voters defeat 2C and 2D, the expansion and financing of the Convention Center
Press Statement
RE: Citizens Against the Convention Center Expansion
Media Contact & Co-organizer
Alvin Rivera
719-566-0069
PUEBLO—OCT. 6, 2007—A group of civic activists has organized to oppose the city’s ballot questions 2C and 2D to request the voters to approve an expansion of the Pueblo Convention Center. The Citizens Against the Convention Center Expansion is comprised of a committee of a cross-section of progressive thinkers and fiscal conservative community leaders questioning the wisdom of any expansion of the Convention Center, and calling on voters to defeat both questions.
Ted Freeman, co-organizer and spokesman stated, “We are very concerned that the voters are being misled about these convention ballot questions, 2C & 2D.” The advocates have claimed that vender fees are not a tax. “Wrong!” Freeman said, “Of course it’s a tax, a special tax to a specific group, the merchants of Pueblo.”
According to Freeman, the Committee questioned who would benefit from the center, why was the convention center made so small in the first place, and now returning less than ten years later asking the voters for more resources to expand the center, and wonders what the value of the type jobs of that would be created vs. the rhetoric of the advocates. As Freeman continued, “When the city of Pueblo is already at the mercy of outstanding bond debt and operating deficits on the existing convention center, HARP, City golf courses, swimming pools, and now a new budgetary commitment to the YMCA project, this convention endeavor is lacking common sense and would likely create major fiscal problems for the city.”
One of the biggest problems Pueblo has is transportation. Freeman stated, “With limited airport commercial flight schedules and only access via I-25, having large conventions are not feasible without doing the preliminary planning to solve the transportation problems.”
The Committee is dedicated to responsible economic development for the entire city-county of Pueblo. For this purpose, Freeman said, “we are prepared to meet with media sources to offer sensible solutions within the existing convention structure. For this reason, we are calling on the voters to defeat ballot questions 2C and 2D.”
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