Posted by
Tomás Aquinas on Friday, August 28, 2009 6:06:36 PM
Some of our local golfers are starting to come out of the woodwork, after Leece's last
commentary on the golf course subsidies.
Their
sensibilities are offended. They are somewhat perturbed that We the
Taxpayers don't understand that subsidizing their playground is all
about 'economic development'.
It has nothing to do at all with political influence and cronyism, you see. They're doing it all for ... us.
Well ... let's look at it a bit.
There's no question that the golf course brings in visitors to The Smile Hi City.
So what?
If
the city's Parks and Recs ran the golf course, it would still bring in
visitors. We just wouldn't be paying our tax dollars to a private,
for-profit business.
In her recent editorial, Leece pointed out
the boneheaded stupidity of subsidizing a business that isn't even in
the city, as opposed to one that is downtown. The city receives no
sales tax revenues from the golf course, because it isn't in the city.
Improvements, if any, don't affect the TID, because the golf course
isn't in the TID.
It really is a dumb thing to do, all the more
so given the fact that no one has a clue about what that business is
pulling in or what they are doing with the tax dollars that are paying
their way.
Yet every other municipal golf course we have
contacted, that uses contracted concessionaires, tells us that those
concessionaires pay their own freight - no subsidies - and they also
pay a fee or part of their take to the city owning the course.
Why
are we paying our 'concessionaire' to run a business, using our tax
dollars, our utilities, our real estate and buildings ... and then not
only keep everything he makes, but essentially tell us to pound sand
when we ask ... what's up with that? That's beyond stupid; it's
downright incompetent. Do you run your own business or household like that?
Doesn't it seem odd that an outfit run on tax revenues doesn't have to answer to the people who pay those taxes?
According
to our city attorney, once that money gets into the "contractee's" hands,
it's theirs to do with as they will, and they don't have to answer for
it.
Does anyone remember that they ran a restaurant
in the downtown area of The Smile Hi City? Doesn't anyone wonder why
that restaurant closed?
Well ... why would they keep open a
restaurant on which they had to pay the overhead ... the rent, the
utilities, funds for equipment and supplies ... when they had a freebie
out at the golf course? Does anyone else remember the comments to that effect?
Does anyone remember how when they had the business downtown, they were real big on "shoppin' local" and supporting the downtown businesses?
So
much for 'loyalty'. It seems that some of our business owners expect
... demand ... it of our residents, but will desert at the first
opportunity. Maybe that attitude is part of why we're in the economic
state that we are. Certainly, using our tax bux to 'keep dem ice cubes
in dem mint juleps fo' da massa on da clubhouse veranda' isn't keeping
downtown businesses open.
But the real pisser here is that we're
subsidizing the wealthiest part of La Juntan society, the part with the
most economic and political clout. We're payin' for their playin',
bottom line, while our kids get to pay more to use the pool and to
participate in the youth leagues, neither of which activity is run by a
private, for-profit business. The golfers can spare us that argument;
that it is even presented is an indication of just how stupid the
people who run that lashup think we are.
Why are we so
cheerfully and so glibly handing a privately owned, for-profit business nearly $150,000, and
getting the high hard one from not only them, but also the golfers,
when we have the unmitigated effrontery as to ask them "why", and
expect something more than a crap sandwich -"the golf course brings in
people" - as a reply?
When Leece wrote that first article on this last year, the comments were made: "She doesn't know what she's getting into ...".
Were
those threats? Is she not to dare to mess with the great and the near
great of La Juntan society? Is that really what it's all about? Call me
a cynic, but I think that's
exactly what it's all about.
It's
about time that city council actually looked at this deal, and looked
at what other municipalities are doing, and came up with a deal that
better serves the community, rather than a privileged few.