If you think the future of our town, your neighbor’s financial well-being, your quality of life and the environmental impact of Sysco building in Lakeville is off set by the money the town will receive, then let’s take a good look at the money.
An analysis of what Selectmen Nancy Yeatts called a “once in a lifetime opportunity” reveals the true bottom line financial benefit to the Town of Lakeville from the Sysco proposal.
Breathe deep, strap yourself in…here we go! Let’s start at the beginning…
The TIF give-a-way…New “estimated tax revenue” based on the spread sheet developed and provided for the TIF proposal totals $4,319,095 in new tax revenue to Lakeville over the 13 year agreement. This would start in 2012 and go through the year 2025…That’s an average of $332,238 per year in tax revenue. Less than 2% of our current budget.
Keep in mind that this agreement is front end loaded, meaning that the first years produce the lowest return to the town. The result of this for the first 5 or 6 years could actually put he town in a negative cash situation if cost of support services exceed the small tax payment. This money will go to police, fire and municipal services. Our Public Safety budgets will have to increase to support the negative impact and activity that SYSCO would bring. The end result will be a zero net gain. None of this money will find its way into the classroom. We know in speaking to Public Safety officials in Freetown about the affect Stop & Shop has had on their police, ambulance and fire departments that these added services and costs are significant, contrary to what you may have been told.
On the other side of the TIF math equation let’s look at what was given away. A 43% discount off the 6th lowest tax rate in the 47 communities in Bristol and Plymouth counties. Sysco would pay a property tax rate of $5.83 per thousand, which is absolutely unparalleled.
In addition, Sysco would enjoy a 100% Personal Property discount on an estimated $10,000,000 spend.
These two items total an estimated savings to Sysco of $3,349,605!
As a point of comparison, Sysco paid $280,000. in property tax to the Town of Norton this year. Based on the TIF spreadsheet it won’t be until the year 2022 that Lakeville will collect in excess of that…for a building that would be 34% larger!
That was a good deal!
Those 75 “Lakeville jobs”… Based on the signed TIF agreement with Lakeville, those 75 jobs are to be offered to “qualified residents of Lakeville and the Greater New Bedford Economic Target Area (ETA), within (5)years following the Start Date.” The start date is defined as the date they move into a finished facility. The ETA is made up of eight communities with a population totaling 185,000 people…Lakeville has 9800 residents.
These are not nor have ever been exclusive “Lakeville jobs”, and they don’t have to be filled until 2017.
The Industrial “C” Overlay District and what it will cost…The final proposal for the Overlay District includes five lots along Main Street in addition to the Hospital property. These were added at the request of Sysco, although they refuse to explain what they intend to use them for; they suggest possible waste water treatment site or possible expansion of some sort (parking lots?).
If Sysco purchased these properties they would effectively remove the possible development opportunity and tax revenue to the Town that these properties might some day bring. Selectman Maksy in meeting minutes from a BOS meeting on April 7, 2010 said, a development like this belongs in an industrial park and doesn’t need valuable road frontage, which is retail frontage…He was correct in April…wonder why he changed his mind?
The Neighboring Property Value Debate… Believe it or not, some would actually have you believe that a 650,000 square foot building in your back yard, 50 feet tall and two football fields long won’t decrease your property value! Those people would also tell you that 150 trucks running, loading and unloading, back up alarms sounding, the smell of diesel fuel 24 hours a day – 6 days a week also won’t decrease your property value!
Well, if you believe that you can stop reading now. However, if you think on some level the 202 homes within ¼ mile of this proposal will lose value, you should realize that you will pay the difference. Quite simply the loss in value, which collectively will be in the tens of millions of dollars, will be spread out over all the taxpayers in town to make up.
In addition, remaining property owners could and will file for tax abatements and their payments to the town will decrease…guess what that means! Bingo, congratulations, you pay again.
Massachusetts Department of Revenue Statistics…We understand that the Lakeville Hospital property should be developed. But development for development sake is dumb. It must be done with foresight and analysis that proves to make economic sense for the Town, not like this proposal.
With increase in CIP (Commercial, Industrial, and Personal Property) percentage of revenue that a community collects we know that the following will happen on a percentage basis:
- Property values will decrease
- Tax rates will increase
- Spending on education will decrease
These analysis and more can be researched on the Massachusetts D.O.R. website.
Opportunity Lost…The town of Lakeville is no different than most towns in America in 2010. The financial hardship that we are facing in our professional and personal life is no different in the public sector. Expenses rise and revenues decline. The economy will eventually recover and we will enjoy better economic times.
If this proposal is allowed to proceed, the opportunity for smart development, responsible growth, in the northern part of Lakeville will be gone…forever.
Vote NO on October 18th…We can do better.
Why would our Town leadership do this? The Board of Selectmen, Planning Board, Finance Committee are supossed to know the economics before they start something like this. Didn't National pay for police service for five years? And that water tank is a big $4Million dollar tax increase. We can't find 80 acres for Sysco how will we get the tank paid for, Sysco only using 8,000 gallons. This is a Bad idea.
ReplyDeleteNelson, this is a great piece. Thanks for putting together a concise well written factual overview of what is at stake here. I am forwarding to all that I know.
ReplyDeleteThis deal is being PUSHED by the Town’s bureaucrats FOR the Town’s bureaucrats and to the detriment of the townspeople/property owners/tax payers. Whoever negotiated this “TIF” should be investigated. This whole things smells.
ReplyDeleteYou raise some good points but you may be missing some additional dollars here. There is the $131,000 of annual truck excise tax and the building permit money. I'm not sure quite how that's calculated or what it will amount to.
ReplyDeleteQuite honestly, I don't think that there is enough money to convince me that this is a good idea. I don't want to live in a "Factory Town" and have to fight traffic to get to Rte 495.
If there is any tax revenue from this project, the taxpayers will never see it. It will be frittered away in new town projects or go into teacher raises. The town should learn to live within their means and not be looking for a silver bullet like Sysco.
The excise tax is included in these numbers. $2,629,095 property tax and $1,690,000 excise tax totals the $4,319,095 for the 13 years...
ReplyDeleteMake sure you vote NO on the 18th!
I sure hope people who aren't abutters consider those who are. I also hope they realize that they may indeed lose more from this proposed deal than they will ever gain. Most settled in Lakeville because it was a quiet, beautiful town that didn't have a lot of industry. Now, the nation's largest frozen food distributor, working night and day, on Main Street, surrounded by hundreds of residential homes. Great for Sysco, yes... but certainly not fair to us, and mostly not good for the town as a whole...
ReplyDeleteYou should really do more research. your talking about how little in taxes Sysco will pay, your forgetting that Sysco will be paying for the 6 million dollars in cleanup to the property, or would you rather have the Lakeville residents pay for it. This is why they are getting a tax deferment. The current Sysco Boston location is in a very rural neighborhood. Those neighbors will tell you that all of your reports about diesel fumes and truck noise are completely false. You should interview the town of norton to see why they dont want Sysco to leave their town. Sysco is simply trying to find a better centralized location for their Opco, they are not trying to hurt the residents of Lakeville.
ReplyDeleteDo you think for a minute that the cost for the property and the clean up at 20M total aren't a steal!! Your exactly right, the current Sysco site in Norton is very rural...justify moving that monster to Main St.next door to the most densely populated part of town...and read above again Sysco won't pay Lakeville what they paid Norton this year until 2022 for a building 32% larger...There are NO circumstances that the town would have to pay for clean up unless they choose to, ask the Planning Board Chairman, Jim Marot. Sounds like more research needs to be done by you.
ReplyDeleteFind 80 acres, in an industrial park, and I would vote for Sysco. The problem is they want to fit 80 acres into just over 50 acres. There are 15 acres of wetlands on the site, 8 Million gallons of storm water that can't soak back into the ground because of all the asphalt on site. The traffic is going to be really bad, so many trucks all day and night. The noise will be bad, sound walls 20-35 feet tall. The taxes will be needed for public safety services......this is not a good idea!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have worked for Sysco for a long time and it makes me laugh to hear how bad you all make it sound. I know some of our current neighbors and they laugh at the ridiculous false information that is coming out of a small portion of Lakeville residents. You really should visit the Norton facility and understand how things work. You are assuming things that just will never happen.
ReplyDeleteResponse to above: I was one that visited the Norton site and there are no assumptions on this blog...I've seen it, heard it and smelt it. I also spoke with a neighbor across the street sometimen June, he was an older gentleman who had lived there for over thirty years. As we we talking in his driveway at 10:30 in the morning and there was a never ending stream of tractor-trailer trucks coming and going, I asked him, "is it always like this?" He smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and said "after thirty years you get use to it", and he wasn't laughing.
ReplyDelete10:30 in the morning ? Thats when most people are at work, can you hear it from work? I also wonder what your smelling?? There is no food disposal on this site !! And if you did visit Norton, you can tell everyone that the homes in Norton are alot closer to the facility than they will be in Lakeville.
ReplyDeleteSysco isn't written on my pay check, so I have a very different view. If Sysco wants to come to Lakeville they don't have to pick the Hospital site. This is the wrong spot for many reasons. They are a billion dollar company, why do they need a tax break, degrade the Town for 50% discount? Construction jobs travel with the project, Lakeville jobs? The odds are long shot at best. This is a nice rural Town, let's not turn it into "Truck City"
ReplyDeleteTo the Sysco employees questions...
ReplyDeleteI was there on my own at 10:30 in the morning, the trucks come and go ALL DAY LONG, you should know that you work there.
I visited the Norton propertty at night, which is what we requested. The smell was the diesel smell from all those trailer refergiration units that run all night in the back of the building.
Since you work there you should know there are NO homes behind the Norton building...suggest you click on the graphics link at the top of this page and look at the overview of the building you work in...Maybe your reporting to a different facility?
Is somebody is trying to secure himself a raise?
ReplyDeleteIf the majority of residents were complaining about this, it would have been struck down long before this point! It's hard to envision permanent consequences if you live elsewhere and won't have to deal with them. Everybody in Lakeville doesn't live right next to the site, but a whole heck of a lot of people do.
Ask yourself if you would trade houses with an abutter. Be honest and vote accordingly.
Review the TIF issue!!! The "Town" GETS all the taxes, EVERY YEAR. Sysco pays the TIF amount. The other taxpayers in town PAY THE DIFFERENCE!!!
ReplyDeleteThe difference is ADDED TO THE LEVY!!! It's not just "exempted"!
The rest of the taxpayers in town pay the remainder!!!
I'll bet even your selectmen don't know this. If they do, they won't admit it. It'll "...be a surprise..." to them.
The reason they are giving Sysco a TIF is because they are paying for the clean which is estimated at over 6 million dollars. The town should have cleaned this site up years ago. Why doesnt any of the abutters complain about the tons of asbetos and chemicals left behind on this site? I'm a Lakeville resident and i'm glad that a company like Sysco is cleaning this mess up...they should get a tax break!!!!
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that the State of MA is number one for clean-up, then National who said they would start clean-up at least four times. National could have controlled project by paying middleboro for the loss of Stop and Shop on Rt. 28. We give Sysco money for clean-up, WHY? We pay Sysco for new employees They need? We pay for Fire and Police that Sysco needs to run the Giant operations and Traffic jams they create? You must still be drinking the Sysco MILK......."WE CAN DO BETTER"
ReplyDeleteThose who are against this project should be a bit more forthright about who they are...most of the lies and falsehoods are coming from the 11 abutters who had to know that a dilipidated former hospital was going to be redeveloped some day...and now we have a chance of having a responsible owner come in, clean up the hazardous waste and redesign the site into a very attractive facility...or, do you think the cranes in the air rental place is a more fitting front door to Lakeville?
ReplyDelete"We can do better"......Last thing I heard, Sysco legal in TX wants to cap the hazardous waste.......I guess they are running out of money......
ReplyDeleteApproving the deal for Sysco is a no brainer. It's not as if it's a choice between Sysco and something else. There is no something else that will happen within the next ten years. It's a way better deal than the now defunct Target, Chilis deal. That would have created way more traffic and police details. It's not about what we are "giving up." If Sysco doesn't come in we will get nothing. How will you live with yourselves when class sizes in the schools reach 35 and kids are paying $300 and up to participate in sports and music. That is obscene. People who think there is another choice are deluding themselves.
ReplyDeleteI love it that the mantra of the luddites is "We can do better." But they don't say how. How fatuous.
ReplyDeleteI challenge anyone to show me how any money from Sysco will end up in the schools. Do you have any idea how town budgets work? Understand, the little money that will come to Lakeville will be swallowed up in Public Safety department budget increases.
ReplyDeleteAsk your friends in Freetown where all the money Stop & Shop was suppose to contribute went!
Your children will be out of college before that day comes.
Every Interstate exit on Route 495 is a magnet for housing and business. Come on you know how it's done......Why does Sysco want this dirty site? It's cheap and close to the road way.....Why didn't they buy 140 acres for less money at the LCC? Because it's 2 miles away vs .3 mile away. Once the site prep. is done this site will go fast.....so...."we can do better"...vote no 10-18-10
ReplyDeleteKeep waiting to do better???...its only been 25 years, how long do you want to wait? So you people would rather have no money coming in from a empty piece of land, than have someone clean it up and pay the town?? The people of Lakeville are smarter than to let this piece of land sit for another 25 years....this is a no brainer...VOTE YES ON 10/18/10
ReplyDelete25 years????It's 2010, State closed hospital in 1992, sold at auction in 2002, worked on zoning and permits till 2005. Then National sat and lost Target to Wareham, then went to non-senior housing.....talk about class sizes...are they smart enough to see thru "the good old boy club" lining their pockets again.....in 25 years we will look back on this and give thanks we stood up to a bunch of greedy ---"we can do better" Get the facts and vote NO REZONE 10-18-10
ReplyDeleteHow reply to October 4, 2010 2:16 PM
ReplyDeleteHow.
Town leaders should work with National Development to locate business that fits the character of the town. Town Selectman should form a resident task force to help. Town leaders should look out for all residents.
"We (the entire town) can do better."
Watch the L-BOS/Finance meeting from 10-04-2010 on Comcast.
ReplyDeleteChairwoman Nancy states "We HOPE TO (repeat HOPE TO) put the money in the stabilization fund."
What, we're luddites because we can do math and don't take statements at face value from PR folks trying to push the deal of a lifetime through? Quit trolling.
ReplyDeleteFind Sysco 80 acres,in an Industrial Park, away from residents.....go to 4-7-10 minutes.....one selectmen got it right.....when Pavestone wanted to move to Lakeville.....one selectman got it right....The "eagle lady" has her Betty Neck and now a water tower we need Millions to pay for......"we can do better"....Vote NO 10-18-10!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all - sign your posts! Anonymous to me is either your a town selectman or finance committee member writing these. It's very sad that our town selectman who's very oath was "for the people" thinks that my children and the children of 200 plus families are okay to be "collateral damage". It's not right, and you can guarantee I will fight this tooth and nail when it comes to my children's safety and quality of life. We are not anti-Sysco, we are against the re-zoning! Sysco belongs in an industrial park. Period.
ReplyDeleteHeather you got it right......all this Damage for less than 11 cents per day....we pay $1M a year to support our debt payments. "We can do better"......Vote NO REZONE on 10-18-10!!!
ReplyDeleteI was an employee of the Norton Syson for almost a decade. I worked all shifts during that period and I know the volume of traffic the facility generates on a daily basis: it is significant.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel the claim that traffic at 10:30AM is alarmist, then pay visit to the Norton facility at 5:30AM and witenss the trailers of the independent truckers parked along South Worcester Street. This is the time of day that, to me, had the most impact on the neighborhood. Sit there for a couple hours, watch what actually happens on any given morning, you will not be able dismiss the impact of the trucks.
Finally an honest Sysco evaluation....wish that senior management would just work to find 80 acres in an industrial park away from residents....then everyone wins......the Hospital site is the wrong location for an operation like this....."we can do better".....NO LAKEVILLE TRUCK CITY....Vote NO 10-18-2010
ReplyDeleteTo Conflicted with Interest..I hope your not that conflicted and will tell this story at Town Meeting on the 18th. What a refreshing change from what the Sysco folks have been saying and want us to hear. I know what your saying is correct, I've seen it too. Please tell the town!
ReplyDeleteI haven't really made up my mind on SysCo yet.
ReplyDeleteThere is some value in having that albatross hospital site taken care of. There is some value in the jobs. The tax revenue is minimal bordering on non-existent due to the overly generous TIF.
There are 2 things that bother me here. First that my town of Middleboro hasn't secured an agreement that trucks won't go through Middleboro Center to get to 44E. We have a kindergarten on 105, the elementary school is right off of 105, and lots of other stuff. The second thing that really bugs me is that cities and towns are so desperate for the almighty commercial development that they are giving themselves away - bidding ever lower against one another in a race to see who can be the biggest commercial stooge.
Having gone through the casino follies in Middleboro, the situation in Lakeville looks familiar in a lot of ways. It's really simple when you think about it:
1. Examine the costs and benefits
2. Factor in quality of life and fair treatment for all residents
3. Pick the one that makes sense.
Towns are becoming pathetic supplicants at the altar of almighty commercial development. Instead of treating our local land and resources as valuable assets - we are eagerly giving them away to the lowest bidder. In the process we are negating the reasons for having commercial development.
I have been involved in this whole Sysco thing for some time now and I can’t understand how the rest or portions of the town can say it’s a good deal!! . If people don’t care about others who will be directly affected by this project and long after, what the hell kind of human beings are we … Like Heather I will fight tooth and nail and scream out loud LAKEVILLE WE CAN AND WILL DO BETTER !! FOR ALL !! VOTE NO TO REZONE!!!!
ReplyDeleteMark thanks for your comments....Exit 5 is a mess, Exit 4 will be a mess. If the site was cleaned up, by National, as promised, then Lakeville would have been considered for Meditech who selected Freetown with no TIF. They have a small foot print,lots of good jobs,lots of taxes....in short a perfect business for any Town. Lakeville has the MBTA, nice for employees.... but will not be considered until National makes the investment to move mixed use project ahead.
ReplyDeleteHow do you put a value on "quality of life"? Once it's gone it's gone.....The Selectwoman who spearheaded this project did it to get re-elected,another Selectman supports it, so it's not in his backyard, the other Selectman spearheaded an opposition group when Pavestone wanted to move into his backyard....A very Bad idea, just like Lakeville becoming TRUCK CITY....yes trucks will go thru down town Middleboro....right by the schools and houses....won't stop at businesses because no place to park....ever watch a truck turn into McDonalds over night parking lot???The taxes received will be $40 per person a year, that's only $.11 a day......"We can do better"...Vote NO 10-18-2010
I have been a Lakeville resident for one year. I have a young family and chose Lakeville as the town to raise my growing family. I chose Lakeville for it's history, small town feel, level of education, and prospects for the future.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time not thinking about leaving knowing that every day I drive by that site, I will not see green grass, but pavement and concrete. I will not see a property development that leads to equitable tax benefits for the entire community. I will not see a property development that will have a measurable impact on our strained school system. I will not see a property development that lends itself to perpetuating the quaint small town that Lakeville once was, is now, and has the potential to continue into the future.
I have no doubt that Sysco would be a wonderful corporate citizen. I would certainly love to have them in the town. I would love to benefit from their contributions. I just don't want to see them every day as I drive down Main St.
This is certainly an economic decision. I just hope we are all considering the economic impact on our children and our community beyond the next five years. When the economy rebounds, we would have lost the opportunity for a development that may have lead to Lakeville becoming a more desirable town and a better place to raise our children.
Do we really think that this development will be that detrimental to the Town, more detrimental than a Stop and Shop, Chilis, and Target. Be realistic, a shopping mall will bring in crime, tax the town services, and burden all involved. A corporate development provides the Town with a revenue stream that guaranteed, as well as providing an attractive building. I too enjoy seeing the green grass, but I can assure you that the grass will be greener at the Sysco site, than it ever would have been if a shopping plaza went in. Just take a look at any of the shopping plazas around us.
ReplyDeleteThe grass won't be greener if it sits next to the exhaust of 300 trucks, I can assure you.
ReplyDeleteI will take 150 trucks over 1500 passenger vehicles any day.
ReplyDeleteI read in the paper they want to put there building 20 feet from the highway as well. The hospital is at least 150 ft. This will be an eye sore for sure.
ReplyDeleteI can’t believe the amount of nonsense opponents to this plan are spreading. And what’s worse, I can’t believe anyone would buy it all at face value. Bear with me because it’s a long list.
ReplyDeleteFirst, opponents claim property values in town will drop 50%. They have no evidence to back this up and town values didn’t drop anywhere near that much as a result of a global depression and housing bust. A $110 million facility that will create new jobs and tax revenues for the town will not cause a drop in values. What will is a rotting, hazardous waste site that lies undeveloped. That’s what we have now.
Next, they say the project will flood the surrounding area because so much empty land that absorbs rainwater will be covered with pavement and buildings. Do you think the state would approve such a project? The engineers have designed a runoff management system that will handle the runoff. We don’t have to build an Ark.
Then, there are the issues of noise and traffic. Never mind that all the trucks will be gone before the morning rush hour and that state traffic specialists have already looked at this issue and found no problems. Never mind that all the trucks will be loaded on the opposite side of a 400-foot deep building and obscured by new sound barrier walls. Never mind that these trucks will then travel away from the homes to leave the facility. Never mind that they’ll spend exactly 700-feet in Lakeville.
Finally, somehow, $6 million in new tax revenue for the Town will disappear because of the increased costs the Town will incur as a result of the existence of Sysco. They have no data to back up this ridiculous claim, because it doesn’t exist. The best they can do is say it will be eliminated because of increased costs for Police and Fire. Never mind that the Police chief says his resources are wasted on the abandoned site because he has to send his officers to the hospital site more than any other place in Town. He says this will save his department money.
I think everyone understands why the neighbors are opposed but please don't let their inaccurate information cloud the benefits to the town as a whole. Please don't just listen to one side of the argument. As you can see by this response the numbers do make sense and the impact is as low to the twon as you'll ever get for this site!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYou've got to read this!!!
“Selectman Maksy did not think that workers will be spending money in Town; they will hit the highway and go home. A development like this belongs in an industrial park and doesn’t need valuable road frontage, which is retail frontage. He was concerned about the 150 trucks a day. Selectman Maksy said when a Sysco representative spoke with him, they told him he would not want to live near this facility.”
Heck... just read the whole thing.
http://www.lakevillema.org/selectmen_minutes/4-7-10.pdf
Selectmen Minutes from 04-07-2010, 4th page, last paragraph.
COMCAST
ReplyDeletechannel 95 – LAKEVILLE
View the LRRG Press Conference taped on 10-12-2010:
Friday 10/15/2010 at 8:00pm.
Saturday 10/16/2010 at 8:00pm.
Sunday 10/17/2010 at 5:00pm.
Monday 10/18/2010 at 10:00am.
…and please don’t forget to attend the Special Town Meeting, Monday evening 10/18/2010.
If this plan passes, and I get woken up at 3am
ReplyDeletein the morning I can assure you that there will be others awoken too. Because if I have to I'll sit in front of your house blowing my horn.
Overall stupid, Sysco would do this town well. Apparently people don't have the intelligence to see this.
ReplyDelete