| Sometimes I get accused of picking on Lenoir City
government and even the esteemed Mayor Aikens. Truth is, I never pick on
anybody. I will however call hooey when I read it.
In the most recent Lenoir City News Letter, From The
Desk Of The Mayor, a one half page section goes into great detail on how
great the seven million dollar Venue is doing for the city. If you
haven't read it before, read below then we'll continue.
Now that you've read the article, let's
compare it to the actual facts.
The Venue, owned by Lenoir
City, is a conference and meeting facility, opened around the first of
2017 at the cost of $7,010,000.00. The loan for the Venue requires
an annual payment of more that $271,716.00 per year until 2057.
Operating expenses for the
Venue continue to grow. However, revenues haven't quite kept pace with
the costs by more nearly 2.5 million dollars since it opened in 2017.
I want to say again, I'm not
being negative about the Venue, it may be a great thing, just
reporting the financial facts straight from the city audits. Maybe the
audits are wrong and "From The Mayor's Desk" is right. But, if just this
one city operation is losing this much money, maybe that explains the
reason Mayor Tony Aikens is always looking for ways to raise more taxes,
Rain Taxes, Sales Taxes, Property Taxes.
Six year budgets below.
All information below from 2019-2022 audits.
|
Event Center |
|
Year |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
|
Salaries |
$79,798.00 |
$160,201.00 |
$194,401.00 |
$68,890.00 |
$104,986.00 |
$108,053.00 |
|
|
Salaries Other |
|
|
|
$34,873.00 |
|
|
|
|
Overtime |
|
|
|
$473.00 |
$1,083.00 |
$4,944.00 |
|
|
Part Time Wages |
|
|
|
$63,937.00 |
$31,221.00 |
$67,552.00 |
|
|
Police Overtime |
|
|
|
$3,754.00 |
$1,057.00 |
$2,664.00 |
|
|
Gratuity |
$1,875.00 |
$15,487.00 |
$19,208.00 |
$21,849.00 |
$5,916.00 |
$30,219.00 |
|
|
Bonus Pay |
|
|
|
|
|
$5,500.00 |
|
|
Vacation Pay |
$0.00 |
$2,366.00 |
$2,425.00 |
$3,924.00 |
$4,022.00 |
$4,123.00 |
|
|
Christmas Bonus |
$108.00 |
$217.00 |
$271.00 |
$162.00 |
$665.00 |
$833.00 |
|
|
FICA |
$6,306.00 |
$13,641.00 |
$16,489.00 |
$14,686.00 |
$11,187.00 |
$16,581.00 |
|
|
Unemployment Ins |
|
|
|
|
|
$47.00 |
|
|
Marketing Items |
|
|
|
|
$25,107.00 |
$20,029.00 |
|
|
Publicity, Subscriptions |
$34,817.00 |
$41,031.00 |
$21,708.00 |
$19,282.00 |
|
|
|
|
Utilities |
$24,506.00 |
$51,880.00 |
$57,864.00 |
$64,043.00 |
$49,880.00 |
$60,562.00 |
|
|
Telephone |
$6,254.00 |
$15,201.00 |
$15,655.00 |
$13,885.00 |
$10,257.00 |
$11,352.00 |
|
|
Repaired And Maint |
$1,966.00 |
$5,221.00 |
$17,043.00 |
$23,926.00 |
$48,455.00 |
$62,072.00 |
|
|
Leasing Equipment |
$738.00 |
$1,830.00 |
$1,389.00 |
$1,183.00 |
$2,298.00 |
$2,864.00 |
|
|
Travel |
$1,368.00 |
$946.00 |
$2,684.00 |
$945.00 |
$2,334.00 |
$2,528.00 |
|
|
Contractual Services |
$1,714.00 |
$5,981.00 |
$12,176.00 |
$9,805.00 |
$5,158.00 |
$2,802.00 |
|
|
Office Supplies |
$368.00 |
$849.00 |
$1,372.00 |
$510.00 |
|
$16.00 |
|
|
Operating Supplies |
$35,354.00 |
$77,797.00 |
$85,420.00 |
$72,306.00 |
$5,748.00 |
$4,547.00 |
|
|
Catering Supplies |
|
|
|
$7,063.00 |
$4,674.00 |
|
|
|
Janitorial Supplies |
|
|
|
$4,235.00 |
|
|
|
|
Sales Tax |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$5,468.00 |
$10,219.00 |
$1,688.00 |
$6,801.00 |
|
|
Clothing & Uniforms |
$1,025.00 |
$0.00 |
$1,067.00 |
$581.00 |
|
|
|
|
Operating Supplies |
|
|
|
$42,776.00 |
$44,932.00 |
$124,491.00 |
|
|
Machinery & Equip |
$4,197.00 |
$7,980.00 |
$2,703.00 |
$0.00 |
|
|
|
|
Special Events |
$14,669.00 |
$17,671.00 |
$4,944.00 |
$21,874.00 |
|
$20,926.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Expenditures |
$215,063.00 |
$418,299.00 |
$462,287.00 |
$505,181.00 |
$360,668.00 |
$559,506.00 |
Total All |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Debt Payment Est. |
$271,716.00 |
$271,716.00 |
$271,716.00 |
$271,716.00 |
$271,716.00 |
$271,716.00 |
$1,630,296.00 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total All Expenses |
$486,779.00 |
$690,015.00 |
$734,003.00 |
$776,897.00 |
$632,384.00 |
$831,222.00 |
$4,151,300.00 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Venue Revenues |
$81,052.00 |
$245,899.00 |
$358,164.00 |
$380,272.00 |
$230,023.00 |
$426,724.00 |
$1,722,134.00 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net Loss |
$405,727.00 |
$444,116.00 |
$375,839.00 |
$396,625.00 |
$402,361.00 |
$404,498.00 |
$2,429,166.00 |
|
