from the article JT so kindly provided:
This year, the difference between the rent due and what the Jehovah's Witnesses can pay is $17,500......Tom Walker, whose term on the Kennewick council expired Dec. 31, said he, too, understood that the money was "specifically for promotion or advertising" of the Watchtower event, but he didn't know exactly how the association was going to spend it.
The sad part is the $9,500,000 the poor dubs have to spend so the WT saves $17,500. Rooms and restaurants for 3 days add up, especially if you have a family.
That always galled me. It's just a crass way to increase WT profits by putting the screws to a local governement. Happened where I am locally. DC site has bounced around between 2 cities (about 70 miles apart) for the last 10 years. Instead of having DC's in both cities, WT lumps us all together for negotiating leverage. If the message is SO lifesaving, why do they try to maximize their $$$$ margin so much?
The return on that $9.5 mill investment for the dubbies: a little closer to purchasing Week 53 of their timeshare.