The importance of a 100 million dollar half-year is marked by a massive misinformation campaign propagated by City of Branson officials.
Prior to becoming mayor, Raeanne Presley was a big fan of subsidizing retail in Branson. In fact, she submitted plans to build a "Mall of America" which was rejected by city leaders. In addition, some of Presley's business partners were tipped off to Branson's plans to build a convention center.
While the convention center plans were supposed to be kept on the "down low" a group of thugs decided they were going to cash in with the inside information they gained.
The importance of keeping the project "hush" was to put on a proper poker face for the city of Springfield. Intent to break a silent agreement where Branson would stay out of the convention center business while Springfield refrained from the entertainment market was going to be disregarded either way.
After developer Rick Huffman pursuaded then Missouri Governor
The fallout continues to this day. Presley and Branson's current Board of Alderman are more than happy to badmouth the Branson Landing. Ironically, it's their job to ensure the projects success but elements of the project which allow the city to host public gatherings have been ignored. In fact a constant stream of negative and often untruthful statements about the Branson Lakefront project continue to spew from Branson's current leadership to the press.
To date, since taking office, Presley has generated a fat $0 in revenue generating projects, over two-million in unsuccessful witch hunts and a record amount to fund "Mayor Fun Trips".
The Branson Landing and Branson Hills now account for over 20% of Branson's current cash flow and while the projects are continually badmouthed Presley has no problem spending the new windfall or revenue. Due to these developments Branson currently boasts over the last five years more annual tax income than the city has ever seen.
Record subsidies are being given to generate demand for Branson's theaters and the tax dollars seem to flow to a few businesses which include the mayor's personal business. The inorganic stimulation is required to generate traffic to entertainment venues with an aging/dying population.
Interestingly, while the current city administration complains about the cost of the revenue generating projects tax funds utilized to market theaters such as the mayor's personal business have seen an increase.
The political reason for not supporting the cities investment is simple. Branson's leaders want to raise taxes to fund their private business and as long as the press remains docile regurgitating city releases instead of analyzing facts, our tax dollars will flow from the poorest to the few corrupt officials in what amounts to the expanding subsidization of politicians private endeavors.
