Governor’s Arena Bill is not on the Senate Finance and Appropriations docket because his proposal is not ready for prime time. This is what happens when Executive Branch doesn’t operate in good faith and doesn’t have respect for the Legislative Branch.
@SenLouiseLucas A secret study by an interested party is not legitimate evidence to support $1.5B public debt to benefit governor’s megarich buddy, Ted Leonsis. JP Morgan has financial interest in proposal. They named their study “Project Potter” (as in Harry) because it’s total fantasy.
@SenLouiseLucas Good for you, Senator. You seem to be the only one actually paying attention to how ridiculous this proposal is. No welfare for billionaires.
Awesome! Questions for the Governor This proposal would be the largest public subsidy of an arena in U.S. history and one of the largest commitments of public funds in Virginia history, funds that would be directly benefitting a very wealthy businessman and his very profitable businesses. Obviously, we can’t justify supporting this without serious due diligence. So why haven’t we seen the study that supposedly justifies this unprecedented proposal? The Commonwealth of Virginia has strict conflict-of-interest rules. Doesn’t the author of this study—which we have not been allowed to even look at—have a conflict of interest? Isn’t a JP Morgan entity the trustee for the investors who stand to make millions of dollars if this proposal goes through? Doesn’t JP Morgan stand to make millions from the proposed project? Has JP Morgan, as author of the study, had to make a full disclosure of all ties it has with the property in question? If so, why haven’t we seen that disclosure? If not, why have they not been required to make the disclosure? The Financial Times reports that private equity firms have more cash than ever to invest in good projects. If this is such a good deal, why don’t private investors snap it up? Ted Leonsis, the owner of the professional sports teams, stands to make many millions from this project. He is a billionaire and could finance the project himself. If it’s such a lucrative deal, why doesn’t he finance it himself? Every business newly established in Virginia could claim that it is creating new jobs and new revenue for Virginia. So why are only megarich folks like Leonsis given public subsidies and massive tax breaks? Why are billionaires treated differently from everyone else? The secret study by JP Morgan is called “Project Potter.” Is that because it is pure fantasy, like the Harry Potter series, or because it is about uncontrolled greed, as personified by the character of Mr. Potter in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, the richest guy in town who insists on grabbing everyone else’s money to make himself richer. Does Monumental Sports have permission from the NBA and NHL to move the teams? Wouldn’t we need to know they have that permission before passing this unprecedented proposal? Monumental Sports has a contract with the District of Columbia. Under that contract, are they allowed to take their teams out of the District? The owner of the Wizards and Capitals made a lot of promises to the District of Columbia in order to induce the District to spend millions of dollars to benefit the teams. Would Monumental’s taking the teams away from the Capital One Arena be consistent with those promises? Do you have any concern that this proposal means taking Black-dominated teams from a minority neighborhood in the nation’s capital and moving them to one of the whitest urban areas in the country?
@SenLouiseLucas This is the largest billionaire handout in the history of stadium deals on the backs of all VA tax payers! This should be nixed as it stands today.
@SenLouiseLucas A big proponent of keeping Virginia as the largest state without a pro sports team. Thanks for nothing, Louise.
@SenLouiseLucas The Governor wants to tell Alexandrians how it’s gonna be - all he cares about is what he thinks he needs on his resume going forward
@SenLouiseLucas Louise the failure doing nothing again, just like her whole career
@SenLouiseLucas VA taxpayers are Against any funding for arenas for billionaires
@SenLouiseLucas We’ve got enough damn traffic in NOVA. We don’t need an arena.