The High Cost of Civic Pride
I noticed my boy playing on the Internet the other day. He was busy taking care of his virtual pets on the website webkinz.com . It is a cool website where he plays games to earn virtual money to take care of his virtual pets. I asked him what he was doing and he informed me he had just bought a hot tub for Buddy, George and Rudolph, his virtual pets. “A hot tub?” I asked. I was surprised because he had just bought a pool the day before. “Yes sir,” he answered back. “Everybody needs a pool and hot tub,” he went on. When I asked him how much money he spent to buy the hot tub he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know.” “Well how much did the pool cost,” I inquired. “C’mon Dad,” he said, “I’m not old enough to understand money yet, I just try to buy whatever I want. If the “puter lets me buy it then I have enough money.” Hmmmm this is getting interesting I thought. “So what happens when you run out of money?” I asked. “Oh that’s easy. I just play more games to make more money!” He triumphantly exclaimed.
This brief conversation with my wise-beyond-his-years, 5-year-old boy came to mind as I sat in our first of many to come Council budget workshops for the coming budget year. In that workshop, raising the solid waste rates by $1.25 a month ($15 a year) as well as spending $2,704,991 to fix up the Mayborn Center was discussed. Click here to view the Mayborn presentation given by City staff.
I expressed concerns over both the rate increase and Mayborn renovations. I think we need to be looking at ways to offset increasing rates with additional revenue and/or reduced expenses. Concerning the Mayborn Center, I can’t see spending this kind of money when we are supposed to be tightening our belts. The taxpayer funded study on the Mayborn Center goes so far as to say that renovating the facility will not provide much, if any, of a return on investment. “You can’t put a value on civic pride,” was a response I got when I pointed out the apparent lack of return for the taxpayers on this significant investment. It was at that moment that the above conversation with my boy came to mind.
Instead of finding ways to contain solid waste costs, let’s just raise the rate. Instead of making due with what we have, like most people are doing these days, let’s raise taxes a tad bit for a $2.7M spit and shine for the Mayborn Center. Sound kind of like my boy’s take on his virtual bank balance? When he runs out of money he just goes back for more. It sure looks like we are gonna to do the same.
BTW, Wouldn’t the world be a great place if cars ran on civic pride instead of gas. Oh well, one can only hope.