Letters: New arts facility will benefit all; Trump’s debts are dangerous
New arts facility will benefit all
State College is a culture-rich destination for Centre County’s performing arts. There is a strong need to expand the capacity and availability of our performance venues to accommodate the large number of performing artists and organizations. The board of directors of the Nittany Performing Arts is working with the State College Redevelopment Authority to grow this capacity by providing a full-sized theater, a studio theater, facilities for community meetings and celebrations, and the convenience of a large, attached parking garage in downtown State College.
Such a facility will not only benefit our artists and audiences, but it will benefit local businesses and attractions as well. According to a report from Americans for the Arts titled “The Arts and Economic Prosperity, 2023,” “When people attend a cultural event, they often make an outing of it — dining at a restaurant, paying for parking or public transportation, enjoying dessert after the show, and returning home to pay for child or pet care. Based on the 224,677 audience surveys conducted for this study, the typical attendee spends $38.46 per person per event, in addition to the cost of event admission.”
It was found that “one-third of attendees traveled from outside the county in which the event took place. They spent twice that of their local counterparts ($60.57 vs. $29.77). When asked, 77% of those nonlocal respondents said the primary purpose of their visit was to attend that cultural event. For more information about how The Arts Mean Business please visit nittanypac.org.
Trump’s debts are dangerous
Donald Trump’s legal debts are a danger to national security. He has demonstrated clearly that he will not use his own checkbook to pay for them. Instead, he solicits money from his supporters and others. This leaves him open to leverage from any billionaire, government, oligarch or deep-pocketed special interest.
Most recently, he secured a $91.6 million bond from Swiss-based insurer Chubb to appeal the verdict against him in the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case. What terms were given for this bond? The Washington Post says it’s “… not clear from court records what collateral Trump presented to obtain the bond from Chubb.”
We do know that Chubb’s CEO, Evan Greenberg, was appointed by then-President Trump to the White House Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and served on that committee from 2018 to 2022. And we know that Chubb operates in 54 countries including Russia.
Trump’s world view is entirely transactional. You give him something and he gives you something. Quid pro quo. This is a terribly vulnerable position for a highly leveraged candidate for president to be in. And should he win, he places the United States squarely in that zone of vulnerability.
Next up, Trump must find about $450 million to pay the fine for the real estate fraud judgment against him in New York. He will get that money from somewhere. Who will give it to him? And what will they want in return?