The Milwaukee Post

This sounds like one of those sleazy infomercial come-ons you see on TV at 2:45 in the morning but it's really not. You want to borrow $17,650,000 and only have to pay back 100 grand? Borrow it from the Menomonee Falls Village Board. The bumbling idiots up at Village Hall in the Falls have just cut a deal with the prin- cipal behind a hotel fiasco in which he walks away from the whole horrid deal out less than 1 percent of what he borrowed. James Heyden's latest deal with the village settles his debt on a construction loan for $100,000. His partnership, Lodging Investors, origi- nally convinced Menomonee Falls to put up the $17 million in taxpayer funds so Heyden's group could take over the forlorn old hotel along the US 45 freeway. The place, once a nice Holiday Inn, had turned into a veritable slum and Falls officials were thrilled Heyden planned to gussy it up and turn it into a modern Radisson. There's a reason Heyden borrowed the money from the village. No bank was dumb enough to make that kind of loan. There wasn't any private equity available either. The fact that the private market wouldn't touch this stinkpot should have been a tip- off to MF officials but these people couldn't spot a tornado if the funnel cloud was hit- ting them in the head. The hotel ultimately went into receiver- ship and Heyden filed for bankruptcy. The receiver is still running the place and, from all appearances, it's a nice hotel. It just isn't worth $17 million. The hotel is likely to be sold soon but nobody, other than maybe the average Falls board pipe dreamer, thinks they'll get $17 million. The taxpayers will walk away out the difference between the sale price and the $14.8 million still owed. What made this deal shocking is that arrangements like this are unheard of. Governments often subsidize projects with TIF district financing or lend their name to the bonds to lower the rate. But this was an outright loan. Seventeen million dollars for a community the size of Menomonee Falls is a staggering amount of money to put at risk. And, this wasn't for any public necessity. It's a hotel on the freeway, not a fire station. And, hotels are hardly big job creators. They didn't give the money to a company that was going to hire 750 workers. There's a history of sweetheart deals in Menomonee Falls. A cabal has run the vil- lage for years dating back to former Village President Joe Greco. Back in the '90s they used government money to finance a project from a civic organization that had direct links to the board. Then as now, they seemed oblivious to how wrong that was. The board has generally included pillars of the com- munity like old high school coaches. The deals are so bad you initially suspect cor- ruption. But after dealing with these people for a couple of decades I can tell you they're not crooked; they're just stupid. The taxpayers have been gradually clean- ing the mess up. Incumbent School Board and Village Board members have been voted out of office. Insurgent candidates have been elected to the Legislature and County Board from the area. Things should gradual- ly improve. In the meantime, the village manager who oversaw the hotel deal, Mark Fitzgerald, is still there, as are most of the staffers who nodded their empty heads in approval. * * * Mary Burke was recently challenged to name just one Wisconsin school district that has struggled since the implementation of Act 10. The Democrat candidate for gover- nor responded by telling a story about a guy from Neenah whose daughter was offered a teaching job in her hometown and in Minnesota and took the Minnesota job. Burke's implication was that Neenah could- n't attract good teachers because of Governor Walker's policies. But the Weekly Standard magazine dug into the story a little deeper. It turns out schools in Neenah, a mid-sized city in the Fox Valley, are thriving. The School Board vice president, John Lehman, told the maga- zine that because of Act 10 cost savings Neenah has actually jacked up its starting pay for a teacher from $34,000 to $40,500. Lehman said before Act 10 Neenah had to close a school and was laying off 10 to 12 teachers per year. He said not one teacher has been laid off since Act 10. In fact, schools are expanding programs. One of the middle schools in Neenah has even begun to offer courses in Chinese! I'm as big a fan of Act 10 as exists in the state and it's my job to be on top of things. I'm especially interested in stories that prop up Walker and his programs. But I had never heard of the Neenah story. I suspect many voters are under the impression Act 10 has cut school spending. Walker and his campaign need to do a better job telling their remarkable story. ( Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) September 12, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE OPINION Taxpayers left on hook in Menomonee Falls hotel drama By OWEN ROBINSON In the wee hours of March 24, 1603, the last, and perhaps greatest, of the Tudor monarchs closed her eyes for the last time. Elizabeth I never married and left no heir to the throne. With her passing, so too passed the Tudor dynasty. Her passing also marked the birth of Great Britain when later that day King James VI of Scotland ascended to the throne of England as James I, thus uniting the crowns of both countries. A century later in 1707 the two nations were fully merged in the Treaty of Union. By the end of this month, that union could be smashed. On Sept. 18, people all over Scotland will go to the polls to answer a simple ques- tion: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" The recent polls show the peo- ple to be evenly split and turnout is expected to be extraordinarily high. If the 'yes' vote wins, the people of Scotland will begin a process to secede from the United Kingdom and establish them- selves as an independ- ent nation for the first time in more than four centuries. As one would expect with something this complex, there are many reasons why many Scots want to break from the United Kingdom. Some of the reasons are quite tangible. Scotland has long been the home of the U.K.'s nuclear submarines. The British government insists that there is no other viable location for them, so the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament backs independence in order to disarm. Other groups want Scotland to have full control of the U.K.'s oil and gas reserves. These natural resources mostly lie under the North Sea in what would be Scottish territorial waters and constitute almost two-thirds of the entire European Union's oil reserves. An independent Scotland would reap the full benefit of being a major energy producer for Europe. Perhaps the more driving reasons for Scottish independence are less palpable but no less real. Scottish culture is distinct from English or Welsh culture and many Scots want a nation of their own to express it. Many Scots are also wanting something with which American are innately familiar; the right to self-determi- nation. Scots want the right to elect their own leaders and have a full and equal voice in international organizations like the United Nations and European Union. It is a desire that people in many places and many times have shared. A separation is not without great haz- ard to both Scotland and the rest of the cit- izens of the United Kingdom. The affairs of Scotland have been intertwined with those of England, Wales and Northern Ireland for centuries. They will be far more difficult to sort out than those of a couple divorcing after 50 years of mar- riage — and at least as emotional. Should Scotland become independent, they will have to figure out what to do about a currency, national defense, courts, foreign relations, regulatory system, immigration system and all of the other things that an independent nation must have. It would not be an easy task, but it is something that has been done countless times before. The Scottish people are per- fectly capable of sorting it out. Meanwhile, those who remain in the United Kingdom will have their own issues to face. They will have to figure out how to organize without the tax revenue and resources of Scotland and learn how to structure a new relationship with a for- eign nation on the same island. However the vote ends up next week, it will be a fascinating experiment in demo- cratic self-determination. It is not some- thing that we have witnessed in the English-speaking world in some time. What a testament it is to Western culture and political tradition that such a decision will be made without bloodshed. (Owen Robinson is a West Bend resident. His column runs regularly in The Post.) The Republic of Scotland? Robinson Scots to decide whether to cut ties with United Kingdom What made this deal shocking is that arrangements like this are unheard of. Walker should hail school spending success since Act 10 became law

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