The 49ers Stadium WILL raid the General Fund - Two

Santa Clarans,


Last June 2, the San Francisco 49ers made a terrible mistake. They allowed this slide to go on the public record:

http://www.santaclaraplaysfair.org/docs/General_Fund_RIPOFF

The City Council's five "Stadium Boosters" voted to accept the entire Term Sheet - as defective as that document is - and that includes also the City Staff report containing the above facts.

In other words: City Staff told us - truthfully, and on the record - precisely how the 49ers' stadium subsidy damages our City's General Fund.

But the "Stadium Boosters," on and off of our City Council, really can't tolerate having Santa Clarans in possession of the truth. They're now trying to deny this General Fund loss.

Note, however, that the "Stadium Boosters" aren't willing to present anything in front of City Council, nor can they afford to be challenged on their claims publicly. They want to deny the truth by whisper and rumor - but they don't want to do that in a public forum where they would be forced to prove their case.

Santa Clara Plays Fair asks all Santa Clarans: Shall we trust in a City Staff who has done more than any other group to get the facts of the stadium subsidy before us? Or are we going to be fooled by the glib promises and slick propaganda coming out of the San Francisco 49ers?

The upfront "corporate welfare check" of $114,000,000 to the 49ers DOES cause the General Fund to LOSE $67,000,000.

Please: Don't be fooled by the hype and false claims of the "Stadium Boosters." Please VOTE NO ON MEASURE J on June 8th.



Thanks for all of your support,
Bill Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair . org

-=0=-

The 49ers' Stadium Subsidy: Santa Clarans, Please VOTE NO ON J!

Dear Santa Clarans,


If you visited the main webpage, you know it's official as of this morning: The Registrar of Voters has given us a letter for the 49ers' Stadium Subsidy Measure which will appear on our ballots on June 8th.

That giveaway is Measure "J," but we promise you, it's "No Joke!"

It's deadly serious, in fact. Tucked away in its bland, feel-good, "not-a-single-dollar-sign" language is a scheme to:

• Hand the San Francisco 49ers $114,000,000 upfront,
• Raise $330,000,000 more for them, and
• Lose $67,000,000 out of our City's General Fund.

Unfortunately, this is a ballot measure bought-and-paid-for by the San Francisco 49ers themselves, and it's built on myth-making. Let's debunk those myths by adding a few dollar signs:

SAY NO TO THE 49ERS SUBSIDY!

If you have any questions about the real numbers behind Measure J - the numbers that the San Francisco 49ers are terrified you'll find - please contact us anytime, and we'll prove them with the City's OWN data and reports.

VOTE NO ON "J"une the 8th - Protect our City and its General Fund!



Thank you for all of your support,

William F. "Bill" Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair

-=0=-

The 49ers and their Scare Tactics

Dear Santa Clarans,


Dismayed that the facts simply won't support their case, the 49ers' stadium boosters have resorted to scare tactics:

• "You'd better subsidize our stadium - or you'll lose your Redevelopment money to Sacramento."

Santa Clarans, when that walker for the 49ers stands on your doorstep and repeats this, please know that it is completely FALSE.

When you vote NO on the stadium subsidy on June 8th, you will not lose a penny to Sacramento. Your "RDA money," or tax increment, stays exactly where it is.

I've heard the above scare tactic personally - once in the Citizens Advisory Meeting of February 22, and twice more on my own street - and I've fielded at least a half-dozen telephone calls from residents calling me to inquire about it.

It's quite clear that the true story simply isn't going to come out of the San Francisco 49ers. Please contact us anytime if you have questions about this or any other issue involving the massive stadium subsidy.

We'll be happy to refer you to the actual City Staff or Agenda reports with the REAL Facts.



Thanks for all of your support,

Bill Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair
1(877)703-4300

-=0=-

Aldyth Parle does NOT support 49ers initiative!

Breaking news! Live from Santa Clara City Council!

Councilwoman Aldyth Parle has clarified her position. Ms Parle had previously appeared to support the 49ers' astroturf ballot initiative. She has now explained her intentions. Due to an illness in the family she missed some council meetings, and was not aware that Council was on track to put a measure on the ballot. She only agreed to support the initiative because she was led to believe that it is the only way that the voters will have a say. Now that she is aware of the facts, she wants her name removed from the list of astroturf supporters.

Updates:

Here are a copy and a video of Ms Parle's remarks:

Do NOT sign the 49ers petition!

Click here for more videos.

Don't Sign the Petition!

In Santa Clara, it takes something like 6,000 signatures to get a measure on the ballot. The SF 49ers have stated they will pay to get the signatures (generally those nice signature-gatherers in front of the Safeway, etc., are paid per signature.) This is stated in a letter from the SF 49ers for Tuesday's agenda.

The letter also includes a copy of their petition & proposal.

It all looks pretty innocuous. The verbiage of the proposed change to law is likely to be almost (if not completely) identical to what the City Council will put forward.

The pernicious aspect of this move is that with the SF 49ers' backed initiative, they can bypass CEQA.

The California Environmental Quality Act safeguards only apply to projects which are put forward by the City Council. So, the City Council could not put this on the ballot until everyone is satisfied with the Environmental Impact Report, proposed mitigations, as well as the City Council's acceptance of certain things that won't be mitigated (e.g., "Yeah, it will be loud & disruptive -- deal with it.")

This Tuesday's City Council (15 Dec 2009) has one agenda item (6B-1) which is basically a proposal for the City Council to step away from performing the due diligence for our city.

From the agenda report:

The Council can consider various options in how they review the stadium related materials on this evening's agenda:

Option 1: Take under review the staff's report dealing with the EIR's required Mitigation, Monitoring or Reporting Program and related ballot measure funding; or

Option 2: Have the 49ers present the initiative petition filed with the City Clerk and briefly address the substance of the initiative. If Council is satisfied with the community initiated petition process then it would not be necessary for Council to take action on the MMRP and related findings. Additionally, if Council determines that the Ordinance portions of the community initiative petition and the Council initiated ballot measure are sufficiently similar, then Council could continue discussion of their ballot measure language and the EIR's MMRP and related findings to a later date in January/February 2010 to allow the initiative petition process to proceed to qualification for the June 2010 ballot.

In other words, Tuesday night, the Council can vote to abdicate their responsibilities.

What can you do?

• Come out & speak against this end run around our rights!
• Send email to let the Mayor & City Council know you are outraged by their actions!
• Send letters to the editor!
  
• Spread the word!
  

49ers Stadium: The REAL costs of a $937M NFL stadium...

Dear Santa Clarans:


Here are...

A member of Santa Clara Plays Fair helped me put together the above pie chart.

Now, you've already seen the team's own sleight-of-hand : Lump the contribution of a "Santa Clara Stadium Authority" in with the team's own contribution - and then try to tell Santa Clarans that we're only paying some 'fraction' of the stadium's cost.

Sorry, but it's not true. Not one penny of the 49ers' own money will go into the $330,400,000 contribution being made by any "Stadium Authority".

That joint-powers authority will be issuing some handsome pieces of high-risk, high-coupon paper - yes, that's more bonds - in order to raise a good deal of that money.

After that, they'll be squeezing concessionaires for deposits and selling fans some very expensive Personal Seat Licenses to raise the rest.

This is still very much a publicly-subsidized NFL stadium - and a "stadium authority" contribution to that is anything but 'funny money'.

Thanks for all of your support - as well as for contributions like this one,

Bill Bailey, Treasurer
Santa Clara Plays Fair

-=0=-
Ref.: City Council - Term Sheet of June 2, 2009 - Exhibit 14

Ref.: "The $800 MILLION MYTH"

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =