Wamp criticizes Haslam over redevelopment deal

NASHVILLE - Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp's campaign charged Tuesday that Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, a GOP rival, and other Haslam family members mixed personal and city funds in a downtown Knoxville redevelopment project.

The issue, which involves the Regal Riveria Cinema, represents a "serious breach of ethics," Wamp spokesman Sam Edelen said in a news release.

The project involved $4 million in taxpayer funds from Knoxville and another $3 million in government grants and tax credits. The Wamp campaign said Mr. Haslam "never mentions that he co-mingled and co-invested as much as $2 million of his own money, as well as $750,000 each from his father, Jim Haslam, and brother, Jimmy Haslam."

Mr. Haslam denied the claim, charging that Rep. Wamp and his campaign "are either intentionally trying to mislead or they didn't do their homework. But neither is a good characteristic."

"To imply that we owned it and set the thing up this way is just wrong," Mr. Haslam said Tuesday. "And it's owned by the city's Industrial Development Board, period."

The mayor said that, while the original deal included bonds being sold to private investors, "the longest we could get the cinema to sign a lease for was five years."

"Now, how many banks do you know or people who are going to make an investment, that you're going to be paid back over a 40-year period when there's only a five-year guarantee of revenue that's going to be paying that back?" he asked.

Knox Chamber Partnership President Mike Edwards called Rep. Wamp's assertion "a gross misstatement."

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