Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Millions are millions, no matter the project

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 28, 2007

Commissioner Mike Cox wants to turn back the clock. He wants a 2007-08 construction project built at 2002 prices. It would be a neat trick if materials and labor costs hadn't skyrocketed, something that has delayed road construction and pushed up the prices on other capital spending around the county.

Cox's sentiments surround the proposed Pasco National Tennis Center, the stadium affiliated with the Saddlebrook Resort to bring professional tennis tournaments to the county.

Commissioners approved spending tourist tax dollars on the stadium four years before Cox's election to the commission. At the time, the projected cost was $5.7-million, with Saddlebrook owner Tom Dempsey promising to cover construction overruns and operating deficits.

But delays - brought on in part by a switch from 15 acres controlled by Lee Arnold to 24 acres on the Porter family ranch - and the accompanying inflation of construction costs pushed the price tag to an estimated $7.9-million.

Cox told Times staff writer David DeCamp he believed the stadium is intended to benefit only Saddlebrook and he wouldn't support it unless it comes in at its price of four years ago.

Don't let the conservative spending proclamation mask the parochialism. Cox has never been a fan of the stadium and the new cost estimates are a convenient excuse to renew objections. Cox, prior to his election, proposed spending the tourist tax money - which can only be spent on projects that will increase tourism in the county - on a vaguely defined multipurpose facility available for community functions or youth sports.

Neither proposal is objectionable, but neither is there documentation the facilities would draw people from outside the county.

Rather than object to a 4-year-old commission decision that puts a tourist draw outside his west Pasco district, Cox would be wise to focus on what's not being spent. By the end of 2007, the county expects to have nearly $2-million remaining in its so-called bricks and mortar fund even after the tennis stadium financing is completed.

It's a reasonably sized bankroll for which the county could begin to solicit project ideas. The ongoing park system expansion in Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes likely provides adequate field space if someone is serious about luring additional youth sports tournaments to Pasco. That leaves the multipurpose center.

If Cox truly believes the county needs a convention center/concert venue/home for the rubber chicken circuit dinners, he should proceed accordingly. But a word to the wise: He shouldn't expect past cost estimates to be more valid for a multipurpose center than for a tennis stadium.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 20:38:46]