[First in a series about a proposed community center in West Chester, OH]
I really, really want to throw my support behind the West Chester Community Center. With a daughter who lives to swim, a son who’ll play any sport and a pair of creaky knees that have forced me to find a form of exercise other than running, we could be the poster family for the center. Furthermore, I was on the original 2012 Vision Committee that first recommended the idea. And to top it off, some of the center’s most ardent supporters are friends whose opinions I trust and respect.
Still, I just cannot bring myself to say we should build it. Perhaps if West Chester existed in a vacuum, immune to all the influences, challenges and demands of the outside world, my opinion would be different. But it doesn’t. And those challenges give me pause. Here’s why.
Putting aside the TIF funding that will be used to build the project, let’s consider the operating costs. Projections show that the center will be self-sustaining through membership and user fees. Even if that turns out to be true – and we all know that even the best-intentioned government projections have been known to be wrong – it will mean that we’ll need nearly $3 million from local businesses and citizens to breakeven each year. If we don’t hit that $3 million breakeven number, then we’ll either need to hit up the taxpayer to make up the difference or cut into other township services. Neither is a pleasant prospect.
Now, we can argue that West Chester has the demographics to crack that $3 million nut. But are we sure? Consider that we’ve defeated four straight levy requests – three for the schools and one for parks – in the past eighteen months. Perhaps we’re not quite as flush with cash as we like to think.
And that’s without all the pressures we’re going to feel as taxpayers in the coming years. We’ve got education that needs to be funded, an out-of-whack state budget that is going to hit schools, local governments and taxpayers in the pocketbook, and an out-of-control federal deficit.
Our friends in Washington currently spend almost $2,000 per U.S. resident more than they collect in taxes each year – all before the baby boomers start collecting Social Security, using Medicare and taking advantage of the new prescription drug benefit. At some point we’ll need to stop borrowing and start paying.
Add to that our exploding healthcare costs, reduced employer contributions to insurance, precarious energy supplies and skyrocketing fuel prices and it gets a little scary. I can’t say that all these costs will make the community center unsustainable. But no one – and I mean no one – can say they won’t. And if it isn’t self-supporting, that will become one more drain on the taxpayer’s wallet.
With all the uncertainties we face, that is not a risk we should take on. We can close our eyes and plunge ahead. But first we should ask one simple question: Is the Community Center a necessity? If the answer is no, then we should take a pass.
For all the talk of sustainable communities and the need to keep up with our rec center-building neighbors, I believe the thriving communities of the future will be those that keep overhead low while focusing on core necessities like police, fire and education. Let’s be one of those communities.
Next week: What ifs and alternatives
No comments:
Post a Comment