Cheryl Hentz is reporting on the Eye on Oshkosh site that developer Ben Ganther is still way behind on tax payments for the 100 North Main St. apartments. The numbers can be found here and here. I think a little timeline can help us to connect some of the dots connecting development and politics in Oshkosh. It isn't pretty:
*On January 25th, 2005 "Progress Oshkosh" held a $100 per person fundraiser at the home of developer Ben Ganther. Progress Oshkosh/Ganther stood in opposition to "Cobblestoner" candidates critical of many of the city's redevelopment efforts.
*On March 3, 2005 Oshkosh News reported that 100 North Main was in arrears. According to the report: "In a Feb. 22 letter to the city, developer Ben Ganther said the owners of the building would make their first quarter payment to the city by March 15 and clear up the outstanding taxes by Sept. 15." Ganther contacted "some" members of the Council and "some" candidates about the situation (i.e. none of the "Cobblestoners" were kept informed). In responses to the report, then candidate Meredith Scheuermann said:
"It is unfortunate that Ben Ganther has not made his tax payments timely. However, he has made plans to make payment by March 15 and then final payments by September 15, including any penalties and interest charges. I do not believe one misstep should be an indicator for future shortfall. Ben Ganther has made adjustments to his original plan and for that he should be commended. I am confident this situation will be taken care of in a timely manner and should not reflect negatively on future downtown development."
Then candidate Bryan Bain said:
"This is an unfortunate situation that is concerning and should be addressed. However, this one incident should not be used to misrepresent the strides being made in downtown Oshkosh. From what I read in this article, Mr. Ganther has taken appropriate steps to notify city staff of his plan to pay all owed taxes. I encourage him to make public the full payment of taxes to eliminate any public doubt and concern (e.g. another interview with Oshkosh News) . . . Furthermore, I am excited to read that Mr. Ganther plans to announce a new commercial tenant and restaurant for the building. This is good news for downtown and the city of Oshkosh."
On March 16, 2005 Ganther made a $38, 637.41 payment to the city. No payments have been made since.
In April of 2005, all the Ganther endorsed candidates were elected to the Council, spending record amounts of money for Oshkosh Common Council races.
February of 2006: We learn that Ganther has not made a payment since March of 2005.
You connect the dots.
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12 comments:
So how can I get my favorite candidate this year in contact with Mr. Ganther? It sounds like he has the golden touch!!!
There's contact information in last year's Progress Oshkosh Press Release:
http://www.oshkoshnews.org/oshblog/2005/01
/progress-oshkosh-schedules-events.html
There is some other information that you may be interested to know. When surfing the ONW site earlier, I found that the Five Rivers site is up ( http://www.fiveriversresort.com/index.html ) and if you take a look at the project team, there is Ganther Construction. How in the world can he keep building our cities future when he won't pay his taxes? I don't need to repeat my view of the resort and the risk involved. Some of this makes more sense. I posted on Cheryl's site a little while ago and pointed out that Kinney seemed a bit anxious when it came to the timeline. Is he trying to get this approved before the spring elections? If so, why? Is someone afraid of what would happen with a new council? I would like to know. I did notice that only 2 of the council seemed to have any questions and neither got straight answers.
I want to get on this council and ensure that things are done above board and that the taxpayers get what they are paying for!
Vote Monte for City Council!
Tony is this a old picture of the building that you have posted or do we need to contact the building inspector too.
I was going to say "Old pictures never die, they just fade away," but then it occurred to me that in the digital age I guess they don't fade.
When Meredith and Brian made there statements about Mr. Ganther and his outstanding tax bill they had no reason to believe he would not pay it based on the promises he made to the city and the schedule that was laid out to make the payments. Have you contacted those 2 councilors before you insinuated they were somehow on the take from Mr. Ganther? I did not think so.
In light of Ganther's tax delinquency and his continued business dealings with the city, I would like to invite people to vote in a new poll on the Eye on Oshkosh web site. Simply put, it asks whether various taxing authorities should continue giving contracts to contractors who owe us mony. Click on my name highlighted in blue above and it will lead you to the site's home page where you can see the poll on the far right side.
I don't know if it was suggested anyone was on the take but it is important for all our city council members and certainly Mrs. Scherrmann and Mr. Bain to come out publicly as to how they feel about Ganther's not meeting his financial obligations to the city. They spoke in his defense before and now they need to speak out for the people they represent.
I have posted on my blog (http://bain-blog.blogspot.com/2006/01/property-taxes.html) my initial reaction to this situation. I encourage you to read it and contact me if you have questions. Thank you.
-Bryan
Where are the rest of the city council members? Bain is the only to respond here and on Eye on Oshkosh. Do the rest of them have nothing to say about this?
This Tuesday (jan 31st) two interesting things happen.
1. Ben Ganther's 100 block taxes are due.
2. The final campaign finance reports for council members is due.
It will be interesting to see who took money from who, and to connect the dots as to which of those members of the City Council can detangle themselves (as Congressmen and women tried with Arhamhoff).
Cheryl Hentz did a great job on this story of unpaid taxes, in a TIF district. Stew Rieckman once again has chosen to mislead the public, once he was SCOOPED. Today is Sunday Jan 29th. What IS the Northwestern waiting for? Or are they hoping the story goes away? Because they are members of the Downtown redevelopment committee, and can't or won't tell the whole story?!
When and if the Northwestern tells the story do they plan to contact those of us that were on the Council during the original 100 block decision? Those of us thaat questioned the plan or lack there of? I guess we'll see how their OLD Fashion journalism works huh?
Melanie Bloechl
p.s. maybe the question needs to be asked: why is the county responsible for the collection of taxes in a TIF when they as a taxing entity don't get any of the new revnue from a TIF?
Well, I can tell you what my finance report will say; I paid for everything myself, out of my own pocket. I had only 1 donation from a private donor for $25 to cover an add in a local newsletter. I choose not to use names without the persons permission but it is not Ben Ganther. I do not have a high priced campaign, but I can sleep at night knowing that I don't owe anyone special favors to get money. I also know that if I pay for things myself, I don't have to answer the questions like the ones being asked right now. I believe in a clean campaign so I won't even throw mud at the other candidates, if any of them took money from someone they shouldn't, I won't be the one to say anything. If the voters want me, they will want me for who I am, not who paid for my campaign.
Kent Monte
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