The Ultimate Disconnect

Ground Zero has become the ultimate disconnect between the American people and their government. No official has the right or authority to impose any plan on the citizens of the United States, unless they can defend its worthiness. Anything that taxpayers are forced to pay for must be able to withstand scrutiny to be lawful.

The first link below is to the five-page Statement for the Record that was sent to the Senate Finance Committee. Together with the two statements from the 12/3/09 hearing, it is within the Committee guidelines of up to ten single-spaced pages for inclusion in the record. That is followed by the cover letter to the individual Senators, a two-page expert commentary on the viability of the current project, and our notification to the LDC Directors of the steps we have taken to convince the Senators of the merit of our urgent request for a feasilbility study.

TTA Challenge to the Silverstein Bond Issue

Text of the prepared TTA Statement     TTA Response to the Bond Authorization

LDC 12/21/09 Board Meeting Webcast

The webcast includes additional remarks that were not part of the Donovan/TTA prepared text. TTA comments begin iin minute 20.The comments of Richard Hughes were not put on paper and are only on the webcast version.)

The Liberty Bonds were authorized by the Liberty Development Corporation on December 21st, as the Directors of the LDC sidestepped every issue we presented. It was, of course, no surprise that they did what good little bureaucrats do, thinking inside the box in every instance. They really seemed to have no ability to process what we were saying, because it automatically made their pre-determined action impossible, so it was automatically disqualified for consideration.

They showed absolutely no sense of recognition that they are enablers. Not understanding what a noble opportunity they had, they made what we expect will one day be seen as the single most egregious error in judgment since George Pataki and Michael Bloomberg threw the “competition” from the LMDC “winner” – the THINK plan – to Libeskind instead. They obviously have no understanding of the consequences of their dishonest reading of the situation.

There were a number of notable misstatements of facts. They tried the usual tactic of pretending our objections were related to a difference of opinion about design, rather than acknowledging that the design was important to us because it is the people’s choice. They insinuated into the record the fable about the current plan being the result of an open and inclusive project. If they really believe that, it is because they don’t want to look into it.

There was a tossup for most preposterous statement. Mr. Mullen was actually going to deny Richard Hughes the chance to speak, because, unlike the December 3rd hearing, an organization “is” only allowed one speaker. That was certainly preposterous. But when Richard said he would speak as a private citizen, what could he say? But knowing that someone came specially to speak at the meeting and then invoking an arbitrary “rule” to try to deny him a chance to open his mouth revealed his bias.

However, the prize for most outlandish undoubtedly goes to Ms. Walton who, having once worked at the Port Authority, considers herself an expert on World Trade Center history. She made the ridiculous claim that she expects one day the current plan will be as much of a success as the original World Trade Center. That fantasy is only possible because she and so many others don’t care to recognize that a complex with a giant version of the same obelisk seen in cemeteries all over the world will always be depressing — in good times and bad times, there will be no interest. Then put it next to what earlier this year Steve Cuozzo at the New York Post called an “unloved, morbid Memorial.” That’s why only government employees and one Chinese firm are signing on.

One total misread was the idea that the public is not on the hook. First of all, the tax break on $2.6 billion is borne by [fill in the blank]? Second of all, the guarantor of last resort is (as we know too well) [fill in the blank]. But, by far the most important consideration is that they now made it possible for Silverstein Properties to start what they cannot finish, without Port Authority money.

Another thoroughly dishonest ploy was the suggestion that there is a snowball’s chance in hell that the Liberty Zone Program would not be extended. It was a manipulative and easily discredited attempt to make the ill-advised seem prudent. The Wall Street Journal reported on December 16th:

Rebuilding of the site by developer Larry Silverstein is years behind schedule, but Silverstein asked for the December financing to be completed because the Liberty Bond authorization runs out at year’s end.

The suggestion that the bonds have to be issued before the authorization runs out at the end of the year is a blatant effort to mislead. There is no cause and effect relationship in the timing. We had assumed that if the “Tax Extenders Bill” got bumped due to the push for Health Care legislation, it would be reintroduced after the year-end recess, with little doubt it would find the support needed. It is actually even simpler than that.

A call to the Senate Finance Committee to check on the progress of H.R. 4213 revealed that if the program does expire, it will be voted on when Congress is back in session and made retroactive to the first of the year. In fact, we learned that the year-end extensions have been handled in that manner three out of the past five years. So the urgency is bogus. If it was that easy for us to learn of the procedure, it would seem that a “reporter” could have looked into it as well, instead of just planting the phony rationale.

We spent the week prior to the LDC vote making sure that those officials most responsible for whether or not these bonds are issued understand what is at stake. As the attachment will show, we have appealed to not only the Senators on the Committee, but also to Governors Paterson and Corzine. Copies will also go to the incoming Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, and to the White House Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Melody Barnes. So no one will be in a position to say they didn’t know of our request. Our position is simple:

Ground Zero has become the ultimate disconnect between the American people and their government. No official has the right or authority to impose any plan on the citizens of the United States, unless they can defend its worthiness. Anything that taxpayers are forced to pay for must be able to withstand scrutiny to be lawful.