An e-mail from the Long Beach Business Journal sent yesterday to online subscribers includes a story that indicates the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners voted to approve a loan of more than $8 million to the City of Long Beach to cover debt service payments owed by the Aquarium of the Pacific. The aquarium owes that amount during this year and through 2010.
The city will repay the Port through tax increments from the Middle Harbor Project, which was recently approved into development and will begin construction soon. The Port will also receive $27 million in tax increments from their Pier S Project – which has not begun construction – to repay a 1993 loan that was used to expand the Long Beach Convention Center. The tax increment payments wil be made by the Redevelopment Agency.
From the e-mail text:
The port projects are part of the North Long Beach Redevelopment Project Area, established in the early 1990s. The port was included so the RDA could specifically tap into tax increment generated by port projects.
Both the RDA Board and the Long Beach City Council must approve the agreements before any monies can be transferred. Those actions are expected in July. The commission-approved agreements means the port will transfer $2,068,404 to the city to cover the remaining aquarium debt service payment due this fiscal year. Another $6,008,679 will be transferred for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.
The possibility exists that the city will return to the harbor commission annually for continued assistance with aquarium debt service. Harbor commissioners would be required to vote on each request.
So we wait for the July meeting in which the City Council will discuss approving the plan to bailout the Aquarium, with the future possibility of revisiting the issue annually.
The LBBJ promises a complete story will appear in the July 7 issue of the newspaper.
What do you think?