Wayne not city’s burden to carry

The News Virginian
Published: July 14, 2008

Bill Hausrath gazes upon a vacant structure on West Main Street and sees the Waynesboro of his youth and the one of succeeding generations, a hub of life in a place where most of life’s energy has migrated slightly west. Other people gaze upon the Wayne Theatre and see only a red brick building. Hausrath sees a necessity in investing $1 million in city taxpayer money in the Wayne; others see a necessity in knotting purse strings.
There is muscle in the opposing view, which draws strength from numbers – from almost two thirds of voters in the spring and, subsequently, from three of five City Council members. Hausrath clings to a vision, false or real, but feels the prospect of failure coiling around him. Without infusions of city tax money, Hausrath says his $7.4 million plan to renovate the Wayne into a bustling community theater could collapse. This, he argues, could bring the city’s reputation as well as the theater itself to rubble.
The city has signed a 10-year performance agreement with Hausrath’s Wayne Theatre Alliance to provide $700,000 in taxpayer money over 10 years for the project, provided it meets a series of performance benchmarks. That money would follow an initial city investment of $300,000 in the theater in 2006. The quandary for Hausrath is that, generally, one group of elected officials legally cannot obligate another to spend money, or more to the point, one council majority cannot force the hands of another.
Presumably preparing for the argument he makes today, Hausrath brokered the performance agreement signed earlier this year when votes on the council favored him. The election juxtaposed power, drawing to the fore a bloc led by Councilman Frank Lucente, an ardent opponent of city funding for the Wayne. Hausrath has responded in evident accordance with the plan, brandishing the performance agreement in hopes of shattering the new majority’s will.
That agreement has a paper tiger’s teeth, a fact recognized by Lucente and council allies Tim Williams and Bruce Allen. The pact is not legally binding. Hausrath might as well brandish the air. So he points to questions about the city’s credibility. If the city promises then fails to deliver money for the Wayne under the agreement signed by the previous majority, the city’s word will be an object of distrust and prospects for public-private deals such as the one for the West End’s Town Center will vanish.
But the Town Center agreement requires only a return of tax revenues to developers. The center, in other words, generates its own money rather than relies upon city cash. The difference is acute. Further, the center can be counted upon to produce tax revenues for at least another generation, long after its five-year, $6.5 million agreement has expired. The distinctions between the center and theater deals are vivid.
Hausrath has sought to smudge those lines to no avail in meetings with members of the majority and The News Virginian. One of the area’s most active developers, Hausrath is a man accustomed to success and the city is accustomed to the benefits, among them Fairfax Hall and a series of community events to raise money and support for the alliance. The prospect of the Wayne faltering pecks at his competitive spirit. “I don’t like to fail,” he says. That possibility grows if the agreement is breached; without city money, Hausrath worries that the flow of private donations will ebb.
This is not taxpayers’ concern. We have expressed doubt about whether a refurbished Wayne would realize the grandeur of Hausrath’s vision. We would be pleased for him to be proved right. The burden, however, is Hausrath’s, not the city’s. Taxpayers are not venture capitalists. More than $2.5 million in city money, federal and state grants and historic and enterprise zone tax credits have been secured for the Wayne already. Let the theater now stand or fall on its merits.