Hungry Like A Wolf For Tax Breaks

Well I'm glad to see someone is starting to question all these tax breaks that city officials give away so freely. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting today that members of a local watchdog group, Grapevine Citizen's Watch is raising questions about the city council's recent sweetheart deal to bring a Great Wolf Lodge to the city. The deal signals the Grapevine City Council's, "relentless pursuit of commercial development, especially aimed at tourism, and its unwritten policy of secrecy that deprives residents from knowing where we are headed," the S-T quoted Buck Buchanan, president of the local watchdog group as saying. The group is especially annoyed that the council mulled over the Great Wolf project for 18 months without breathing a word to citizens. I suppose on the theory, that an uninformed electorate is a happy electorate.

The city landed Great Wolf with an offer of $5,300,000.00 in taxpayer money. While the citizen's group complains that the project was presented to the public as a fait accompli, Council-Lady Darlene Freed tells the S-T, that it is far from being a done deal and that residents may still offer input. Yeah, right. Does anyone seriously think city employees are going to get nit-picky with the hotel developer after hearing that their bosses have granted them a multi-million dollar tax break? Not surprisingly, P.W. McCallum, the executive director of the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau thinks this is a great deal. He told the S-T, "Great Wolf now elevates Grapevine to a first-choice option for the leisure market. The critical mass is beginning to really come together." Of course, if the, "critical mass" really is coming together in Grapevine, why does the hotel need multi-million dollar tax breaks?