Self made tyrants

From the Advocate's obit of Blaine Kern this morning.

What Popeyes kingpin Al Copeland was to chicken, Kern was to Carnival: a brash, shameless character who came from nothing, launched an unconventional Big Easy empire, and lived unapologetically large and loud as a result.

Ah yes the myth of the "self-made" man. 

Carnival was traditionally the province of the city's Uptown elite. Kern, of German and Italian descent, had been born on the wrong side of the Mississippi River. But his artistic and sales skills afforded him access to Carnival's inner circle. Once there, he aimed to make a difference.

"When I started out, if you were Jewish, black, Irish, Italian, you couldn’t get in these clubs,” he said in 2018. “You had to be a WASP. It was crazy. It was a different world.”

"Once there, he aimed to make a difference."  Did he really, though?  Or was he just in the right place to be useful to an expanding class of business elites at just the right time and make a lot of money in the process?  The Carnival club hierarchy may be more complex, diverse, even, than it once was, but its royalty, so to speak, is still very much a manifestation of wealth and status. Kern may have "come from nothing" but it was only so he and his heirs could arrive in the company of the same owners, bosses, and real estate speculators who profit from the very poverty from which Kern was fortunate enough to emerge. What is the good in that? What difference is made?

It's interesting how often figures like Copeland and Kern, having grown up among poverty and racial exclusion, resolve not to take down these systems of oppression but instead to weasel their way into the oppressing class. 

Tom Benson was another example. There's also some news today about one of his several late in life local brand rescue projects.  

New Orleans has been hoisting Dixie beer for more than a century. Soon, that beer and the company behind it will have a new name.

In a statement released today, Gayle Benson, owner of Dixie Brewery and the city’s Saints and Pelicans franchises said her company will change the Dixie name. The new name for Dixie has not yet been decided, but it will be chosen with feedback from the local community, Benson said.

Poor Gayle. Saddled with this nostalgia product that she now has to reinvent.  Guess the new beer will have to be a "self-made" brand.

You might even say they went marching in

Again, this is all very much on brand for Bensonworld.

But attorneys for an alleged clergy abuse victim allege in new court filings that hundreds of emails currently under seal show the NFL franchise's higher-ups helped determine who should be included on the list, going “beyond public relations.”

The attorneys also assert that the available email exchanges show it was the Saints who went to the archdiocese first and offered their services — rather than the other way around.

The new motion, filed Thursday, purports those services included pitching “favorable stories” about the archdiocese and Archbishop Gregory Aymond to local news outlets, as well as drawing in other unspecified influential community members to help manage “the fallout” from the sex abuse crisis.

This wouldn't surprise anyone who understands the way upper crust New Orleans club stuff works. It's a broad circle of entertainers, cultural non-profits,  business jerks, tourism profiteers, media companies, political cronies, bankers and "philanthropists" who keep themselves enriched and perpetually in power at expense of the city's poor and working classes. And the key to keeping it all running is they always have each other's backs.

So, for example, because Gayle Benson puts time and money into supporting cultural non-profits like WYES, the folks there are happy to promote her various endeavors as well.  Similarly, when Gayle's and Greg Bensel's friends at the Archdiocese need a little logistical support in the PR department, of course they are happy to oblige. 

Update: I kind of think this story from this afternoon belongs in a post about the club of plutocrats who run everything. I'll explain but first, here is the story.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - As taxes begin to be filed for another year, the Internal Revenue Service is still trying to collect a hefty sum from New Orleans’ top-elected official.

Liens filed by the IRS show Mayor LaToya Cantrell and her husband, Jason, owe more than $95,000 in taxes. Federal tax liens have been placed on the couple for eight of the last nine tax years (2010-2015, 2017-2018).

The latest lien was filed on January 28 on the home owned by LaToya and Jason Cantrell. The IRS claims the married couple owes income taxes from 2018 totaling $19,406.99.

When I saw this my first thought was, oh of course, now that it is somewhat popular to go after the mayor in the press a little bit, they are going to pile on.  It's different now than it was before Cantrell was elected when a story on this same issue appeared in The Lens but was downplayed by most of the press herd as a political matter during election season.

But put all that aside for a second and notice this particular detail from the Lens story.

In an interview, LaToya Cantrell did not dispute that she and her husband had underpaid the IRS. However, she said, the IRS should have received it after she refinanced her house in 2013, before the agency placed the lien on her house.

Cantrell blamed the outstanding debt on a bank error by her mortgage lender, First NBC Bank.

I'm pretty sure it was only The Lens who mentioned that much.  Nobody really tried to put it in context, though. Well, almost nobody. 

Congrats to Tom on all the things he achieved including becoming dead, I guess

 


The Tom Benson state funeral, Mitch's big book tour, um.. the new Zelda game and other stuff is discussed here. Last week was weird which is why this is up late and why there's been light posting here generally. Bear with us.

Whose street?

 LaSalle Street as it runs into what is now called Champions Square.



Six months later it still isn't officially Tom's street even if he does treat it that way.

Guess what?  There is still no contract between the LSED and the City for the use of the 1400 block of LaSalle.  I just confirmed that through a public records request this week.

I wanted to wait until the first Saints first home game to find out if they were actually going to resolve the issue before 10's of thousands of people poured across the property so I could get a clear picture of how Thornton thinks the 1400 block of LaSalle is "overvalued".  

I, myself, slogged across that public street with thousands of other people that day we got our ass kicked by the Patriots.

Clearly, this street is not "public".  Not even close.  Barriers on both ends with police checking bags....it ain't public.  It is now a permanent part of the Champions Square footprint.

As usual, there's a bunch more to that AZ post including a fun Sewerage and Water Board tie in so go read that. But I'd just like to add that the bag check is even more aggressive this year than it has been in the past.  Used to be they'd let you walk in with your cocktail so you could finish it before you went into the Dome and had to subsist on $9 shitty Dixies for the rest of the day. When we got to the checkpoint last week, they made us stop and throw away our Diet Cokes before passing into the Benson Concession Exclusivity Zone.

This week, you may have noticed several prominent Republican blowhards have taken to being very mad online at Tom Benson's state subsidies.  Before they either get too distracted by the next dumb thing or someone points out that they're actually the party of giving state assets away to their very rich friends like Tom and they drop the subject altogether, maybe we could get them to ask for our street back.

We will fix the fiscal cliff if everybody takes a knee

So it turns out that all this time, the way to get conservative politicians to talk about ending corporate welfare was to bruise their little snowflake fee fees with nonviolent political demonstrations. State Rep. and noted critic of "political correctness" Ken Havard is suddenly ready to defund Benson over what he considers incorrect political activities.

Louisiana State Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, said Monday morning that he wants to cut millions in state tax dollars, exemptions and credits allocated to the New Orleans Saints, the NFL and any of those groups' associated facilities that receive funding.

Havard's announcement comes a day after a group of Saints players participated in a protest during Sunday's national anthem before their game against the Panthers. Protests were the focus around the NFL on Sunday as players chose different methods to demonstrate after controversial comments from President Trump late last week.

Maybe we should have started this a long time ago. As anyone who has followed the legislature over the past few years can tell you, the problem with tax subsidies goes well beyond football. 

In 2008, the state awarded 51 cents in sales tax breaks for every $1 it collected in sales taxes, the study panel found. In 2015, the state gave away $1.18 in sales tax breaks for every $1 it collected in sales taxes.

In 2008, the state awarded $1.08 in corporate income tax breaks for every $1 in corporate taxes it collected. In 2015, the state awarded $2.72 in corporate income tax breaks for every $1 in corporate taxes it collected.

The core issue in Baton Rouge in recent years has been (mostly) Republican obstruction of any meaningful effort to get these tax breaks under control. Maybe if we managed to make them mad at more industries over symbolism, though, we'd finally break through to them.  Has anyone talked to Ken about all the "libruls" who benefit from the Hollywood South credits?

They all look the same, eh, Tom?

Finally, the details about how out of it Benson really is are starting to leak.

At one point, Henry's attorney, Chris Williams, asked Benson why he had testified that Henry had been with him during the Saints' Super Bowl victory when Henry had not been working for him at the time.

Benson acknowledged that he remembered neither where the Super Bowl had been played — Miami — nor who his assistant was at the time.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

"Who is this?" Williams asked.

"It's Rodney and a basketball player," Benson said. "Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he's a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no."

Williams said Anthony Davis.

Benson said, "Yes, that's it."

Before you get too worried, though, just remember that brain damage has been very very good for Benson over the years, financially speaking so this is probably fine.

New Orleans: So far ahead we're.. well, we did this stuff first

So gratifying to see, here in the first year of the Nagin Presidency where a buffoon and his corrupt idiot friends are in charge of everything, that the nation is in the throes of the same Mounment Wars that dominated local politics all last year.  We're starting to get used to saying, "been there," to the rest of the nation down here in our supposed backwater.  Check with us again when you're ready for some advice on rotting infrastructure or losing whole cities to sea level rise.

Oh and since the Bronze Tom fad is spreading as well, just let us know when you're ready for us to show you how to knock those down too.  We're working on it. Trust us.

Louisiana made

I just wanted to point out that Trump did not invent this absurd situation.

The Secret Service has vacated its command post inside Trump Tower in Manhattan following a dispute between the government and President Trump’s company over the terms of a lease for the space, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Previously, the Secret Service had stationed its command post — which houses supervisors and backup agents on standby in case of an emergency — in a Trump Tower unit one floor below the president’s apartment.

Tom Benson did.

For years, the state has been paying Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson and his family for 19,000 square feet of Poydras Street office space that has sat empty, even as former Attorney General Buddy Caldwell rented offices for employees elsewhere in the New Orleans area.

With a new governor and attorney general — and with the State Capitol wracked by a historic budget crisis — the state will no longer be paying for a vacant floor in Benson Tower.

So many Bronze Toms

How many does the world need? Also what if they are horcruxes?

CANTON, Ohio -- Tom Benson now has a stadium named after him, with a statue to go with it.

The first major step in a nearly $800 million project at the Pro Football Hall of Fame has been the renovation of an aging high school stadium located next to the hall itself. The New Orleans Saints owner donated $10 million to the renovation.

On Thursday, a 9-foot statue of Benson was unveiled at the 23,000-seat stadium that Hall of Fame President David Baker called "the finest small venue stadium in the world."

The now renamed Tom Benson Hall Of Fame Stadium is actually the second football field to bear Tom's name. There is also a "Tom Benson Field" at Tulane's Yulman Stadium. One day it will be dug up by archaeologists to discover a Terra Cotta Army of Bronze Toms buried beneath.  

Also this, of course, is not the first statuary Benson known to us.  The original Bronze Tom continues to darken Champions Square until such time as the #TakeEmDown movement finally gets to that spot on its list. But that's not all. There is also Mini Bronze Tom seen here being contemplated by Tom Himself at the original statue's dedication ceremony.



My idea is to mass produce a souvenir 16oz beer stein shaped like that which you can serve Dixie from at the Superdome for like $20 during Saints games.  (If they do this, I would like my cut please.)

Benson's branding bucket list

Tom Benson is bringing Dixie beer back to New Orleans because there clearly aren't enough breweries in town now. 

Tom and his wife Gayle Benson said Wednesday (July 26) that they purchased a majority of Dixie Brewing Co. LLC for an undisclosed price. Longtime owners Joseph and Kendra Bruno will keep a minority interest. As part of the agreement, a brewery will be built in Orleans Parish within the next two years, possibly in New Orleans East.

The Brunos bought Dixie in 1985 which happens to be the same year that Benson bought the Saints.  Maybe that's only interesting to me.  Anyway it's just kind of funny that Tom thinks he's stimulating the economy by bringing back manufacturing jobs.   

"Here's something that represents New Orleans for me," Tom Benson said Wednesday. "I think this is a good thing for New Orleans. This is why I wanted to get involved. I believe we need a little stimulus here in our city. We need something that's made here."

Sort of reminds you of Trump's Carrier stunt.. or at least Michael Bagneris and his "Nuts and Bolts" or whatever.  Either way, it's clear Benson is on his own personal locavore's version of a #MAGA journey.

The Dixie deal didn't come easily. About two years ago, Benson asked his team to look into buying New Orleans brands in the "ain't dere no more" category, iconic companies that were struggling or dead, his executives said. 

Saints President Dennis Lauscha said they had exploratory talks with at least 10 companies. "We all said that the one we all would love to bring back was Dixie Beer," Lauscha said. "Word on the street, though, was the owners weren't very interested in selling Dixie Beer ... We knew we had to convince them that this was the right thing to do, that we were the suitor that was going to bring it into the next generation."

So in the coming sunset years of Tom's life we can expect to see him present us with more undead brands. People had some fun with this on Twitter yesterday. "Tom Benson's Hubig's Pies" "Tom Saver" 'Tom's Ruth's Chris" "K&B&B" "Tom's Tastee Donuts" "TomBenzie's" and on and on. He's already managed to make Tom's Tulane Stadium happen. So, really, anything is possible.

Public space, private space

Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner had a novel solution last week for constituents upset over his vote to allow Internet Service Providers to scan, record, and sell information about all of their online activities.

In the video, first made public by the liberal super PAC American Bridge, Sensenbrenner responds to a woman asking about Congress’s decision to roll back Obama-era internet privacy laws.

“Well, you know, nobody has got to use the internet,” Sensenbrenner told the woman.

It's hard to imagine anyone would find this credible in 2017.  Of course people have got to use the internet. At least anyone who wants to live anything resembling what we would consider a normal modern life has to use it. We use the internet to do our work. We use it to apply for work. Even the most menial jobs hire via online application. We use it to apply for loans. We use it to apply for benefits. We use it to apply to school. We use it to do our taxes. We use it to talk to our friends, family, and neighbors. We use it to read the news.  We use it to watch TV. The internet is in our TVs It's in our phones. It's in our cars, our speakers, our air conditioners and microwaves (sort of, maybe).

Look, this is stupid. It's a self-evident fact that the internet is a necessity, not a luxury for anyone expecting to engage in even the most modest of lifestyles. Unless you are a retired Jedi living off the grid in a cave, you're gonna have to use it for stuff.

The implication thrown around by people like Sensenbrenner or by Jason Chaffetz who wants you to choose between your iPhone and health insurance, is that not everyone deserves even the most modest of modern lifestyles and that it's fine if our public policy actively excludes people from that.
Sensenbrenner's iteration is a direct denial of the notion that the internet should be regulated as a public utility. Republicans especially, are heavy into denying that even public utilities should be regulated as public utilities these day. The disastrous results there should be a clear enough warning against further privatizing the public commons on the internet.

Under the regulatory regime signed into law this month, ISPs, the police, advertisers, and anybody who can pay for it, get to know everything about what you do on the internet... which is to say, they can know pretty much everything you are up to ever. Even day to day activity as passive as reading and searching, is fodder for commercial exploitation or state inquiry. Meanwhile, it isn't quite the same the other way around.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The White House announced Friday that it would cut off public access to visitor logs revealing who is entering the White House complex and which officials they are meeting, breaking with the Obama administration’s practice and returning a cloak of secrecy over the basic day-to-day workings of the government.

So even as the private lives of individuals are exposed to a wider scope of surveillance and commercial exploitation, the public records of the public's business conducted in the public's spaces becomes even more opaque. This is what happens when we abandon the idea of public goods and services. Everything that can be appropriated by the rich and powerful will be.

I thought about all of this again when I saw this weekend that the AZ story about Tom Benson's theft of La Salle Street had been picked up by WWLTV. Remarkably, a security guard tried to run the TV station's photographers out of the space as they tried to shoot some footage there.

Meanwhile, public access to the street has been blocked at times, usually for private or special events run by the LSED’s property management contractor, SMG. That has added to confusion about whether the 1400 block of LaSalle remains a city street. When WWL-TV set up a camera this week on what used to be the LaSalle Street roadway, a security guard from the Zelia-owned Benson Tower office building told the photographer he couldn’t shoot video there.

“Actually, all this is private property. It’s not a street,” the guard said, his voice captured on video.

Even if any of the pretense were true, if the street was clearly Benson's private property, that's some high level arrogance. The open air environs of perhaps the city's most iconic building are gonna draw photographers. Here are runners lining up for Saturday's Crescent City Classic just aiming their little camera phones any old direction. Hopefully they didn't accidentally land on anything classified.




By the way, I finished in 48:31. That's my best time in over a decade. Maybe not entirely relevant information, but it was bound to come out sooner or later given the realities of today's internet. Race organizers fit each runner's number with an RFID tag and post the results on their website even thought Jim Sensenbrenner keeps telling them they don't have to.

Whose streets? Tom's streets

Last week the NFL voted to allow the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas. The reason, as always: pure extortion.

The relocation feels like the money grab it is. Davis and the other N.F.L. owners said they were impressed with the city’s potential, but what persuaded them most was the $750 million tax subsidy lawmakers in Nevada will provide for a big, modern stadium with suites, fancy restaurants and concession stands, not to mention the prospect of a marquee naming-rights partner and other financial benefits.

Fans might not care about such amenities, but in the money-first N.F.L., the other 31 owners certainly do because they receive a cut of what every team generates in its stadium. The Raiders have been near the bottom in the amount of revenue they have produced in their deteriorating stadium, which is more than 50 years old.

Now, in a sane world, hulking landmarks like sports stadiums probably should be expected to have a shelf life well past 50 years. That's allowing for the occasional renovation or two, which the Oakland Coliseum certainly has had.  But this is professional sports where decisions on such matters are more about what the ownership cabal can squeeze out of the public.  And every franchise relocation crisis brings a new opportunity. 

The owner Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, a power broker in the league who embraced and pushed the move, had an extra incentive. He owns half of Legends, a marketing and hospitality company. Last year, he persuaded the owners to let the Rams move to Los Angeles, and his company won the contract for the new stadium the Rams are building there. Jones pulled off the same daily double with the Raiders.

So the age of any stadium isn't nearly as important as what fortunes can be derived from building a new one. The Superdome is a few years past 40. And nobody is (currently) talking about any dire need to pull the Saints out of there.  The Advocate's Nick Underhill tries to tell us this is because the team's home grown ownership and management "gets it" or some such nonsense. But those of us with longer local memories than Underhill's might disagree.

Take, for instance, this passage where Underhill unquestioningly repeats Dennis Lauscha's assurances that all is well and the good people are working to keep you happy well into the forseeable future.

The Saints have already begun discussions with SMG’s Doug Thornton about how the two sides can keep this relationship going beyond 2025. The Saints have started soliciting proposals from architects for a long-term plan for the Superdome. The goal is to start shaping what the “next generation” will look like for the area around the stadium.

“I can sincerely say that our team and Doug and his team and the state, they’re investing in the future,” Lauscha said. “(All) of us want nothing more than to make that area great and really make it the jewel of downtown.”

He added: “You have two partners who want to dance. We’ve seen when that happens — particularly in our market, but all throughout all professional sports — when that’s the case, good private-public partnerships can exist and work long-term.”

[Before we get too much further into this, let's assume that, unlike Underhill, most of us remember well that Tom Benson was determined to move the Saints out of New Orleans when the city was at its lowest point after Katrina and had to be dragged back kicking and screaming. In case you are like Nick, though, and need a refresher, I always liked Oyster's explication best.]

Anyway, about that "jewel of downtown" public-private partnership the guys are all working on. It's less of a "partnership" than it is a.. well, grift isn't really strong enough a word for what this is. A new post at AZ takes an in-depth look at it. Apologies for the long quotation.

Easy Street...courtesy of Louisiana

The 2009 deal between Benson and the State/LSED consisted of two parts.

The first was an extension of the Superdome lease by LSED through 2025 and an $85 million dollar disbursement to the LSED by the State of Louisiana for improvements to the Dome as well as scaled payments to the Saints pending the amount of money the team generated annually from 2011 to 2024.

The second part of the deal involved the newly acquired Dominion Tower and properties purchased by Benson’s Zellia, LLC. In addition to the State agencies leasing over 70% of the office space in the tower, a state organization called the Louisiana Office Facilities Corporation (essentially an extension of the LSED) agreed to lease the New Orleans Center property which included the Mall and area now known as Champions Square, as well as the aforementioned parking garage for $2.3 million annually. The LSED agreed to take on the operations of the parking garage, mall and Macy’s retail store, retaining all revenues up to the $2.3 million mark (to compensate for the rent to Zelia), then any additional revenues would be split with Zelia 50/50. The agreement called for Zelia to be responsible for any initial renovations and repairs to the properties with the LSED maintaining daily operations and maintenance.

Benson/Zelia agreed to a $10.5 million dollar investment in the property over a three-year period (from 2010) and the LSED committed to making $85 million in capital improvements over the following two years with a completion date of 2011.

Public/Private Partnerships: The Road to Prosperity for the Private

After ratifying the agreement in an LSED Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Robert Bruno stated the deal was (paraphrased from meeting minutes), “One of the most complicated, creative, bipartisan examples of a public/private partnership that could ever be imagined.”

Ron Forman, then President of the LSED Board of Commissioners and CEO/President of the Audubon Institute said (paraphrased from meeting minutes), “Without Mr. Benson’s willingness to invest, it could not have happened.”

How would one not be willing to invest in a multi-million dollar contract that placed any business risk solely on the State of Louisiana? The deal guaranteed near full occupancy rate of Benson Tower on top of a guaranteed 2.3 million dollars a year lease for the Champions Square property and the parking garage in which Zelia doesn’t even have to manage (The management of the properties is contracted to the company SMG by the LSED).

All Benson had to do was purchase the properties and the state took on any and all business risk to guarantee Zelia a financial windfall.

As obscene as all that is, it's pretty well known to most New Orleanians. (Except, I guess, Nick Underill.) Ask anyone to define the boundaries of Bensonville and most probably wouldn't even need to consult the Noligarchs Map.



But a lot of people may not know about the public street Benson's fiefdom managed to absorb for what appears to be zero compensation back to the city.. or scarcely any acknowledgement of the transaction.

An entire city street, the 1400 block of LaSalle which lies between Benson Tower and the Superdome, has been appropriated into the Champions Square venue….sans any contract with the City.

The street has been completely closed to automobile traffic with numerous permanent structures erected by the LSED including gateways  on both ends of the street.  During concerts and events in the Square these gateways are closed to the general public and used as a ticketing entrance for private events.

There are numerous problems with this, as Jason goes on to point out. Most crucially, it's probably illegal in that it violates a state constitutional prohibition on public property being "loaned, pledged, or donated to or for any person, association, or corporation, public or private." It's also just a ton of money the city is leaving on the table for use of the public property. At the same time the mayor is squeezing as much as he can out of ordinary people by raising parking fees, installing traffic cameras, and taxing people for air, he's doing this multi-million dollar favor for a billionaire.

Here's something else from the AZ report that would make you spit out your $12 Dome Foam.

If the City of New Orleans is as cash-strapped as Mayor Landrieu suggested when I interviewed him, why have we left millions of dollars on the table in respect to 1400 LaSalle?

When I asked the LSED if the City has received any compensation for the use of the street from them or Zelia they replied:

"The City of New Orleans has received the economic benefit of (i) the improvements that were made to LaSalle Street, (ii) the ongoing maintenance, repair, etc. of LaSalle Street, and (iii) increased tax revenues derived from events that occur at Champions Square. "

It’s kind of hard to understand how shutting a city street off to the public, taking it out of commerce (including parking meters and fines), installing permanent fixtures....all to generate income for a private venture...is an “improvement” or benefit to the City. 

If I fix the potholes on my own street, can I put up two gateways on each end and charge people to use it?

No. No, you can't do that with your street. These Newcomb Boulevard residents found that out the hard way a few years ago. Also, this is pretty much the same argument advanced by defenders of the city's Confederate monuments now scheduled for removal.

Led by the Monumental Task Committee, the monument supporters argue that the upkeep their members have done over the years at the statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard gives them an ownership interest in the statues and therefore a say in what happens to them.

Of course that wasn't a winning argument for the Monumental Taksers. But it's remarkable that the city (or LSED on the state and city's behalf) would turn around and make that case now.  It's especially dubious for anyone to argue that Benson has gained some sort of property right to LaSalle street simply by virtue of presuming to collect rent from it.  On the other hand, stealing public goods and purposing them to enhance the profits of billionaires is what the NFL was built on. So who could expect anything different?

And this does seem to be the way we treat our public spaces now be they streets, parks, or federally protected wilderness. If it isn't being monetized and "put back into commerce" we no longer recognize its communal value.  But as long as Mitch Landrieu and the neoliberals are applying the privatization model to New Orleans, they probably shouldn't just be doing it for free.

And now we'll never know

The Bensons are saying they have reached a settlement.

New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson has finalized an agreement settling the federal lawsuit he filed almost two years ago against the officials overseeing a group of trust funds benefiting his estranged relatives, it was announced Friday.

Kyle Schonekas, who represents one of the trust officials, said the agreement's paperwork is in the process of being filed. A second source with knowledge of the case also confirmed that paperwork finalizing the agreement had been drawn up.

Terms weren't made available, but Friday's news resolves a dispute that largely centered on non-controlling, non-voting shares in New Orleans' NFL and NBA franchises.

It comes three days before the case was set to go to trial, a prospect that prompted attorneys for the NFL and the NBA to serve notice Thursday that the leagues wanted U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of New Orleans to seal certain pieces of "commercially sensitive" evidence from public view. There was widespread speculation that evidence could shed light on exactly how much money NFL and NBA teams — among the most lucrative businesses in the world — are actually making.

So we still don't get to look at the books.  We also don't get to see the details of Benson's mental competency evaluation so the whole thing has become a big dud. There's always hope that the terms of the settlement won't hold up. This has happened before. So keep your fingers crossed, I guess.

What we need here is a wikileak

If the infamous Russian hackers or whatever want to make up for whatever damage (real or alleged) they (may or may not) have caused recently, here is a great place to start.

The NFL and NBA are asking a federal judge to keep under seal information about the value of New Orleans' two pro sports franchises. Those multi-million-dollar figures are at the center of a court case set to begin Monday (Feb. 6) over the estate of Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson.

The 89-year-old billionaire had originally planned to bequeath ownership of the teams to his daughter Renee Benson and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc. After a very public falling out with his heirs in late 2014, Tom Benson moved to change his plans and give the teams to his wife, Gayle.

Trustees for Benson's estate challenged the terms of the swap in court. Their lawsuit focuses on whether he can remove ownership shares in the Saints and Pelicans along with other assets from trust funds created for heirs. The terms of the trust funds allow for assets to be exchanged but only for assets of equal value.

Key to determining how much the heirs are entitled to is placing an official value on the teams. Forbes magazine pegged the value of the Saints at $1.75 billion last year -- the 29th most valuable team in the NFL. The Pelicans ranked last in Forbes' NBA franchise value list, 30th at $650 million.

Both leagues filed documents late Thursday asking that Judge Jane Triche Milazzo allow them to intercede when, as expected, the values of the teams are submitted as exhibits. They request these exhibits be placed "under seal," meaning the numbers wouldn't be disclosed as part of the trial's public record.

This cannot be allowed to happen.  Forcing the Saints' and Pelicans' books into public record could have significant political ramifications, not only in New Orleans but nationwide as cities and states push back against the extortion racket promulgated by the parasitic billionaires who operate major league sports. This disclosure would be the primary benefit (along with the entertainment value, of course) of the entire Benson family saga.  If the judge doesn't release it, we have no choice but to ask Putin for a (another?) favor. 

Warring on Christmas

We made eighty something chocolate chip cookies last night. As one does.



Last night we also watched the Alastair Sim version of that story where we learn it's OK to be a ruthless dickhead one's whole life so long as it's in pursuit of the riches necessary to buy everyone off just before you die.  Tom Benson has been in that phase of the cycle for a few years now making sure they put his name on football fields and cancer hospitals and stuff.  Strange that he even cares that much.  The Ghost of Christmas Future could show him his grave, I guess, but he already knows about the statue so it's not that scary.



Still, there's no way to go back and make this not have happened.

Among the book's most revealing passages:

-- The grassroots effort by local civic and business leaders to ally with the NFL and save the Saints during the chaotic months after Hurricane Katrina.

"He (Benson) was leaving," said John Koerner, owner of Koerner Capital of LLC, who attended summit meetings of top New Orleans business leaders and NFL executives, including Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, in late 2005 and early 2006 in order to gauge and rally support for the Saints. "There was no B.S. about it. He was leaving, and we did everything we could" to change his mind.

Benson and his acolytes will keep trying, though.  But it's a ponderous chain, Tom.

Benson settlement do-over and over and over

They're gonna try again to keep from having to go to trial. 

Both sides in the lawsuit over the Benson's family trusts say they are close to finalizing a settlement, according to filings they made Wednesday (Nov. 16) in federal court. They're asking U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to give them more time to complete reports she has required.

After a family fallout that went public in early 2015, Saints and Pelicans owner Tom Benson sought to remove ownership shares of the teams from the inheritance of his daughter Renee Benson and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc. He instead wants to give control of the franchises to his wife, Gayle. Trustees for the heirs are challenging the asset swap Tom Benson has offered, suggesting it doesn't equal the value of the team shares.

Attorneys for Benson and the heirs executed a memorandum of understanding in June ahead of a scheduled court date, saying they were working on a settlement. Milazzo took the case off her calendar but two months later set a Feb. 6 trial date after deeming progress on the settlement was insufficient. Along with this she included deadlines for expert reports and depositions.

Still isn't clear what Benson can offer the trustees that approaches the value of the sports teams.  Also if you are a pro sports fan or just a resident of any city holding a high public investment in a major league franchise, you're still rooting for this to go to trial where the teams' confidential financial information would (possibly) be made public.

Meanwhile the Saints are getting ready to play Game 10 tonight in Carolina.  I wish I'd made more time to write about the games this year. There might be an opportunity to get caught up a bit soon now that the election is over.  Anyway, we've been going to the Dome as usual this season and it has been pretty good.  The team isn't tearing up the league or anything but the football is quite watchable. I think we picked 7-9 on the fake radio show a few months back. That's still what it looks like now. Chance to pull back to .500 tonight. Should be fun.

That's all he actually has

It was never clear just how Tom Benson was going to buy out his heirs if he couldn't offer them something of comparable value. No one is saying the dealerships and other investments are worthless. But the great part of Benson's wealth comes to him via the football team.  So there really  isn't anything he can offer the kids that would be fair.

Which is why the NFL rejected the most recent settlement proposal.  Benson was, essentially, trying to pay for the Saints with the Saints.

Recent court filings show the NFL's finance rules won't allow Benson to use his personal wealth — including the controlling, voting stock in the Saints — to back the proposed promissory notes. Under that kind of a deal, the trusts could move to seize Benson's personal assets, including the controlling stock, if Benson were to default on the notes.

Turns out the NFL frowns on "Loomis math." And who can blame them? Their profits are based on collecting obscene sums in television advertising revenue while bullying state and local governments around the country into subsidizing the bulk of their costs.  There are a few other businesses that compare that. But Tom Benson only owns shares in one.

Squabbling Bensons still can't get it together

The judge has had to go and reintroduce the stick.

A federal judge has scheduled a Dec. 8 trial date in Tom Benson's lawsuit seeking to take away ownership in the Saints and Pelicans from his estranged family, after weeks of settlement talks failed to produce a final agreement.

U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo on Thursday (Aug. 25) scheduled the trial and denied a mutual request by Benson and lawyers for his estranged heirs' trust funds to extend a delay in the case.

Milazzo ordered the trial after meeting with the lawyers in her chambers for a status update.

I know it's still a long shot but boy would I love to see this thing actually go to trial.  It won't (probably) because to let it get that far would be the worst nightmare of practically every owner in pro sports.

A trial in the case is expected to make public details of internal NFL and NBA financial information, the financial performance of the Saints and Pelicans, and Benson's personal wealth were expected to be aired.

So they'll have to settle. But it would be fun if they didn't.

The real tragedy of the Rita vs Gayle settlement

Our Noligarchs map. Bensonville is shaded in yellow.

Because they won't go to court now, we'll never know exactly how much Benson makes off of his Earldom. We can guess it's a lot, though.

In the four seasons since the Saints have been operating fully under the new agreement, the team has never tried to claim an inducement payment.

When counting the Mercedes-Benz naming-rights money -- a 10-year deal worth at least $50 million -- the stadium improvements, and revenue from the real estate deal, Benson is almost certainly clearing more than $23.5 million.

And that's on top of what was an already lucrative arrangement.

The Saints continue to keep virtually all revenue produced during home games at the publicly owned Superdome. This includes net concessions revenue, ticket sales, advertising, naming rights, parking, merchandise sales and virtually anything else that can turn a profit.

The team pays no rent in exchange for these revenue streams.

It's hard to say exactly how much Benson is making, but business is good to say the least.

In a related story this week, the Texas Rangers are ramping up to run an arguably even worse con on the Dallas metro area. Deadspin is, I guess, hopefully, framing it as the stadium war to end all stadium wars. 

It is not unreasonable, I don’t believe, to portray the pending fight over a new $1 billion stadium for the Texas Rangers as a proxy war—or at least a referendum—over the public financing of stadiums in America.

But let's not get our hopes up.

For and by tourism

The industry is good for the city because it brings in a lot of money.... which we give right back to the industry.

Today, there are about 15 special tax dedications and exemptions benefiting a half dozen entities created to promote tourism through leisure travel, conventions and professional sports. Combined, the subsidies were worth about $154 million in 2015, roughly 28 percent of the city's general fund budget that year, according to a NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune analysis of public records.

That's a lot. Is that a lot? It sounds like a lot. 

The BGR study estimated that the hotel taxes generated $165.9 million in 2015. After accounting for all the pass-throughs and levels of distributions, the watchdog group estimated that about $126.8 million -- 76 percent -- went to tourism-related entities. The remaining 24 percent went to public services such as city government, transportation and education.

No other major American destination city devotes a smaller share of its hotel taxes to local government than New Orleans, according to a recent study by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. On average, the 17 cities in the study dedicated 65 percent of hotel taxes to basic services. New York dedicates 100 percent to its city government.

In addition to the hotel taxes, there are other special taxes and local sales tax exemptions that benefit tourism that were not included in BGR's examination. When they are included, the total dollar value of tourism subsidies was an estimated $154 million in 2015.

Yep. It's a lot. Where is it going? 

The single largest beneficiary of the local subsidies is probably Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, and Louisiana's richest man with a net worth of $2.2 billion, according to Forbes.

Benson is often thought to benefit primarily from state money because his teams play in venues the state owns through the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District. The governor appoints the LSED's board, which the Legislature created in 1966.

Taxes generated in New Orleans, not state appropriations, pay for the bulk of the LSED's operations.

Goddammit. I should point out, also, that during the first legislative special session this year, one of Benson's special tax breaks on stadium concessions was momentarily revoked in the scramble to "clean pennies" and fill the state budget gap. This immediately caused a round of "OMG the Saints could leave!" freaking out which led in turn to the legislature restoring Benson's tax exemption later in the year.  And you thought those guys in Baton Rouge could never come together and get things done.

During the public budget meeting series this year, the mayor pointed specifically to the Superdome concessions tax break as a source of frustration.  In recent years, he has complained more and more loudly about how much locally generated tourism revenue "goes to the state" without specifying who actually benefits from that arrangement.  So hearing him sort of call out Benson was an interesting departure.

Of course Benson isn't the only beneficiary of these "state" funds.  There are also the various tourism boards referred to in the article who ensure that these public funds never actually reach the public except in a drips and drabs.

Hotels overwhelmingly backed the special taxes and industry assessments on them because they were earmarked for endeavors that would drive revenue back to their bottom lines, Perry said. The benefits offset the cost of the extra taxes.

Sanders, the University of Texas San Antonio researcher, said industry boosters want hotel taxes invested in tourism because it serves their own interests, not because the argument has any rational economic basis.

"A hotel tax is a public revenue source that can and should be used for any desired public purpose," he said. Nobody would claim that sales taxes should fund Wal-Mart's advertising budget because it pays sales tax, Sanders said.

In other words, New Orleans is a company town run by representatives of the company for the betterment of the company.

I'm a little disappointed Robert McClendon's article isn't generating more discussion. The T-P is promising a follow-up today although I haven't seen it appear online yet.  While you're waiting, though, McClendon took a look at the way the tourism industry fosters income inequality in New Orleans in this article a few years ago. Now is a good time to review that.  Also here are panel discussions on the issue from the seventh and eighth Rising Tide conferences if you have a little extra time.


Community or Commodity? from Jason Berry on Vimeo.


Rising Tide 8 - Beyond Tourism Beyond Recovery from Jason Berry on Vimeo.