On Sunday, July 27, The Independent Record printed the following letter to the editor.

"After reading the article on Blue Cross/Blue Shield's new building site selection in the front page of the IR dated 7-17-08, I wonder who Alan Nicholson thinks he's kidding when he says, 'It's only the most economic thing they can do because they're getting a subsidy from the public, and that isn't right.'

That statement coming from someone who just a few years ago was forgiven over $500,000 in debt from tax increment financing and was, without question, the largest recipient of tax increment funds in the history of Helena! I wonder also if his project downtown could have been built without the city using taxpayer dollars to pay for the $10 million parking garage next to his downtown development. Can it be that public subsidies and debt forgiveness are only "right" if they benefit his properties? I don't know about you but if that's not the "pot" calling the "kettle" black, I don't know what is!"

Liane Taylor

The Independent Record has learned that the financial allegations contained in Taylor's letter are false, and has confirmed the following with the city of Helena:

Alan Nicholson received a loan of $880,000 from the city of Helena. The loan is not the largest expenditure among the tax-increment financing expenditures. That money was requested and used to build roads, water, sewer and other infrastructure owned by the public and, according to Nicholson, only accounted for about half of the cost of the public infrastructure needed to develop the Great Northern. The city funds were not given as a grant, as they have been in other situations where such funds were used for public and private infrastructure.

None of this debt was ever forgiven. The debt was reduced twice by offsetting debts the city owed Nicholson, based on contractual obligations agreed upon before the start of the Great Northern project. Through loan payments by Nicholson and the reductions for city debt to Nicholson, the $880,000 loan has been reduced to just under $500,000 which is still owed by Nicholson.

The parking garage cost about $5 million, roughly half of the $10 million dollars alleged in the letter to the editor, and serves an area much larger than just the Great Northern. The agreement to construct the parking garage was included in the contractual obligations entered into between the city and Nicholson at the inception of the Great Northern project as an inducement for the investment of substantial private funds for the construction of a hotel and other commercial buildings. Both the city and Nicholson recognized that the Great Northern could not be built as a high-density urban neighborhood without the parking garage, and the city determined that it was in the public interest to build it.

The Independent Record regrets printing Taylor's letter without verifying these facts.