LovelandPolitics
| Loveland's Independent News Source |
Loveland, February 25, 2015
Loveland resident Rick Raesz likely saw nothing wrong with a recent invitation he sent the newly
created Regional Tourism Authority (NoCo) board members inviting them to his Loveland home
to warn of an impending financial collapse and need to buy Karatbars. In fact, the invitation
set-off a cascading series of revelations that may put his leadership of that nascent organization
in jeopardy. The City of Loveland is participating in the regional tourism authority he now heads
along with the City of Windsor and Larimer County and several private companies. McWhinney
has taken a leading role while the cities of Ft. Collins and Greeley were invited but declined to
participate.
Regional Tourism Authority (RTA)
Operating similar to an urban renewal authority, a Regional Tourism Authority (RTA) would be
allowed to issue debt (public debt) while receiving a diversion of future sales taxes by the State of
Colorado to repay that debt for up to 30 years according to the enabling legislation passed in
2009. The limit per project was set at $50 million while the RTA is not limited to only diverting
state sales taxes but could tap local tax revenue as well.
Similar to McWhinney's Centerra that is currently diverting City of Loveland sales taxes and
diverting property taxes to repay public debt issued to construct infrastructure for their private
endeavors, the RTA will divert the State of Colorado sales taxes (2.9%) for up to 30 years in
zones designated as "tourism" zones. Ideally, the only sales taxes diverted would be those
additional taxes generated as a result of the project called TIF (Tax Increment Financing) or in
other words any additional sales taxes generated by the project increasing tax revenues.
Regional Tourism Authorities must apply to the State of Colorado to initiate each project intended
to draw tourism to the area ideally from outside the state. The objective is to incur public debt
constructing the attraction while repaying that debt for up to 30 years using new sales taxes
generated by the project into the surrounding area designated a tourism zone. Legislation
signed by the governor last June placed tighter restrictions on funding to ensure only projects
drawing non-resident tourists receive funding.
Go NoCo's RTA applied for 5 projects to be located in Windsor, Loveland and Estes Park. Here
is a description of their recent application.
Strange and Untimely Invitation Seen As A Red Flag
An invitation sent earlier this month to Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierrez, the McWhinney Corp.,
Larimer County officials, Windsor officials and other RTA board members or partners set off
alarm bells for two reasons. The first is the tax exempt organization cannot be associated with
any for-profit activity and the second is NoCo's RTA Board Chairman Rick Raesz's assertion that
the U.S. Dollar is "worthless" and our current financial system teetering on inevitable collapse.
The invitation Raez sent the entire board and RTA partners stated,
Rick Raesz invited you to Tax Free wealth and the banks pay for it!
Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 06:30 PM Rick's home Message From Host:
"You have been personally selected to be a part of a RARE and brief introduction ..."
Raesz is apparently a multi-level marketer for the German outfit "Karatbars" that sells very small
amounts of gold to amateur investors at about 33% above market value (according to online
reports). While none of the RTA officials we spoke to attended Raesz' introduction, the
consensus appears to be the invitation was to lure them into a pitch on buying into the Karatbars
gold Raesz has been peddling to friends and family while predicting a coming world-wide financial
collapse. Rather than being a "rare and brief introduction" the Karatbars Raesz is peddling are
available on Ebay and from anyone else who has purchased a distribution kit similar to Fuller
Brush or Amway products.
Flagged by Canadian regulators for being a "pyramid scheme" and under investigation in
various other countries, the company recruits "independent" operators similar to Amway who
market tiny amounts of gold (as little as 1 gram) and invite their friends and neighbors to a "brief
introduction" where the impending collapse of the world financial system is predicted and an
aggressive sales pitch to relieve participants of their "worthless" paper currency in exchange for
the timeless value of Karatbar's cards containing a tiny amount of gold.
Last August, Raesz predicted the coming collapse of the U.S. Currency and world financial
system, among his comments posted on Youtube were the following,
".... worthless dollars and buying gold..you are preparing for the financial 911, OK, and one
of these days you are going to wake-up, like you did in 2001, and find out our financial
system was flown into oblivion."
"Gold has the same value and buying power as it did 2,000 years ago, the dollar does not."
Paradox for the RTA Board
Tourism and public financing rely on not only a stable economy to be successful but also a high
confidence by investors and would-be tourists that their investments or vacations will not be
destroyed by a catastrophic economic collapse. In other words, doomsday predictions are not
seen as helpful to the goals of a regional tourism authority.
While many credible economists believe significant inflation in the future is likely given current
borrowing trends by federal, state and local governments, they are on the opposite side of the
fence from those who believe the U.S. Federal Reserve has successfully controlled inflation thus
stabilized the U.S. Dollar. Countries experiencing hyper inflation cannot finance public projects
on a collapsing currency.
Raesz appears to be on both sides of that fence by encouraging people to urgently exchange
their "worthless" U.S. paper currency for gold which he predicts will be the post apocalypse form
of currency while also presiding over a quasi-public entity ready to issue millions of dollars in
long-term bonds (more government debt).
Even stranger was his recent attempt to panic the RTA board members into buying his Karatbar
gold by ridding them of their worthless dollars while at the same time applying for millions of
dollars in bonding authority from the State of Colorado. Stacey Johnson even thanked him for
the invitation but said she was too busy preparing their application to attend.
We suspect Raesz doesn't believe U.S. Dollars are indeed "worthless" just yet as he seems so
willing to trade them for his small trading cards containing over-priced gold.
Loveland resident Rick Raesz likely saw nothing wrong with a recent invitation he sent the newly
created Regional Tourism Authority (NoCo) board members inviting them to his Loveland home
to warn of an impending financial collapse and need to buy Karatbars. In fact, the invitation
set-off a cascading series of revelations that may put his leadership of that nascent organization
in jeopardy. The City of Loveland is participating in the regional tourism authority he now heads
along with the City of Windsor and Larimer County and several private companies. McWhinney
has taken a leading role while the cities of Ft. Collins and Greeley were invited but declined to
participate.
Regional Tourism Authority (RTA)
Operating similar to an urban renewal authority, a Regional Tourism Authority (RTA) would be
allowed to issue debt (public debt) while receiving a diversion of future sales taxes by the State of
Colorado to repay that debt for up to 30 years according to the enabling legislation passed in
2009. The limit per project was set at $50 million while the RTA is not limited to only diverting
state sales taxes but could tap local tax revenue as well.
Similar to McWhinney's Centerra that is currently diverting City of Loveland sales taxes and
diverting property taxes to repay public debt issued to construct infrastructure for their private
endeavors, the RTA will divert the State of Colorado sales taxes (2.9%) for up to 30 years in
zones designated as "tourism" zones. Ideally, the only sales taxes diverted would be those
additional taxes generated as a result of the project called TIF (Tax Increment Financing) or in
other words any additional sales taxes generated by the project increasing tax revenues.
Regional Tourism Authorities must apply to the State of Colorado to initiate each project intended
to draw tourism to the area ideally from outside the state. The objective is to incur public debt
constructing the attraction while repaying that debt for up to 30 years using new sales taxes
generated by the project into the surrounding area designated a tourism zone. Legislation
signed by the governor last June placed tighter restrictions on funding to ensure only projects
drawing non-resident tourists receive funding.
Go NoCo's RTA applied for 5 projects to be located in Windsor, Loveland and Estes Park. Here
is a description of their recent application.
Strange and Untimely Invitation Seen As A Red Flag
An invitation sent earlier this month to Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierrez, the McWhinney Corp.,
Larimer County officials, Windsor officials and other RTA board members or partners set off
alarm bells for two reasons. The first is the tax exempt organization cannot be associated with
any for-profit activity and the second is NoCo's RTA Board Chairman Rick Raesz's assertion that
the U.S. Dollar is "worthless" and our current financial system teetering on inevitable collapse.
The invitation Raez sent the entire board and RTA partners stated,
Rick Raesz invited you to Tax Free wealth and the banks pay for it!
Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 06:30 PM Rick's home Message From Host:
"You have been personally selected to be a part of a RARE and brief introduction ..."
Raesz is apparently a multi-level marketer for the German outfit "Karatbars" that sells very small
amounts of gold to amateur investors at about 33% above market value (according to online
reports). While none of the RTA officials we spoke to attended Raesz' introduction, the
consensus appears to be the invitation was to lure them into a pitch on buying into the Karatbars
gold Raesz has been peddling to friends and family while predicting a coming world-wide financial
collapse. Rather than being a "rare and brief introduction" the Karatbars Raesz is peddling are
available on Ebay and from anyone else who has purchased a distribution kit similar to Fuller
Brush or Amway products.
Flagged by Canadian regulators for being a "pyramid scheme" and under investigation in
various other countries, the company recruits "independent" operators similar to Amway who
market tiny amounts of gold (as little as 1 gram) and invite their friends and neighbors to a "brief
introduction" where the impending collapse of the world financial system is predicted and an
aggressive sales pitch to relieve participants of their "worthless" paper currency in exchange for
the timeless value of Karatbar's cards containing a tiny amount of gold.
Last August, Raesz predicted the coming collapse of the U.S. Currency and world financial
system, among his comments posted on Youtube were the following,
".... worthless dollars and buying gold..you are preparing for the financial 911, OK, and one
of these days you are going to wake-up, like you did in 2001, and find out our financial
system was flown into oblivion."
"Gold has the same value and buying power as it did 2,000 years ago, the dollar does not."
Paradox for the RTA Board
Tourism and public financing rely on not only a stable economy to be successful but also a high
confidence by investors and would-be tourists that their investments or vacations will not be
destroyed by a catastrophic economic collapse. In other words, doomsday predictions are not
seen as helpful to the goals of a regional tourism authority.
While many credible economists believe significant inflation in the future is likely given current
borrowing trends by federal, state and local governments, they are on the opposite side of the
fence from those who believe the U.S. Federal Reserve has successfully controlled inflation thus
stabilized the U.S. Dollar. Countries experiencing hyper inflation cannot finance public projects
on a collapsing currency.
Raesz appears to be on both sides of that fence by encouraging people to urgently exchange
their "worthless" U.S. paper currency for gold which he predicts will be the post apocalypse form
of currency while also presiding over a quasi-public entity ready to issue millions of dollars in
long-term bonds (more government debt).
Even stranger was his recent attempt to panic the RTA board members into buying his Karatbar
gold by ridding them of their worthless dollars while at the same time applying for millions of
dollars in bonding authority from the State of Colorado. Stacey Johnson even thanked him for
the invitation but said she was too busy preparing their application to attend.
We suspect Raesz doesn't believe U.S. Dollars are indeed "worthless" just yet as he seems so
willing to trade them for his small trading cards containing over-priced gold.
| Doomsday Prepper Heads Regional Tourism Authority |
| How they responded How does the board of a Regional Tourism Authority respond when their Chairman invites them to his home to participate in a controversial multi-level marketing scheme while predicting an inevitable financial 911? The Invitation Tax Free wealth and the banks pay for it! Host:Rick Raesz 817 991-6260 When: Thursday, February 12 at 6:30 PM Where: Rick's home 4067 Valley Oak Dr Loveland, CO 80538 Cecil Gutierrez replied: Sorry. We have a joint city council meeting with Fort Collins that evening Chad McWhinney, McWhinney Real Estate Service Larry Wilson replied for Chad McWhinney "no" Larry Kendall founder and owner of The Group Replied no "We are out of town this week. Thanks for the invite." Debbie Davis replied no "So sorry - I will be out to town that date. Cheers to great success! Debbie" Stacey Johnson Replied no, "I am sorry I will not be able to attend, with the RTA application due, we are tied up this week. Thank you for inviting us!" |
| Rick Raesz encourages people to give him their "worthless" dollars for the "future currency" of Karatbars |
| Rick Raesz |
| March 6, 2015 UPDATE - Rick Raesz resigned following a decision by the RTA Board to remove him as a result of this story appearing in LovelandPolitics. You can read the text of the city manager's announcement to the Loveland City Council on our blog. |