Irons in the Fire: Petersburg Shouldn't Stick Taxpayers With This Sand Trap

A. BARTON HINKLE
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

Feb 27, 2007

Petersburg has got more problems than Reese's has pieces. The school system, for instance, is in such bad shape -- only one of the city's nine schools has full accreditation; the system spends less on teaching and more on administration than most of its peers -- that Virginia's Superintendent of Public Instruction recently sent an emissary to run things for a while.

Nearly half the residents of Petersburg rent their dwellings. The city has one of the lowest life expectancies in the state, and one of the highest illiteracy rates. Crime is rampant. Taxes are among the highest in the state. People have been fleeing for years.

But fear not -- the City Council has a plan.

It's going to open a golf course.

Last week the council voted 5-1 in favor of a proposal to borrow almost $4 million to reopen the Lee Park Golf Course, which has been shut since 2003. Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

To make matters worse, City Manager David Canada says the golf course would lose money for the first few years, requiring infusions of cash from the city's general fund.

Golf. An idea this crazy makes Charles Manson look almost as judicious as Charles Schwab.

MUNICIPAL golf courses are dubious affairs in the best of circumstances. If there is sufficient demand for golf to support a course, then the operation of it ought to be left to private enterprise, or to private clubs. Taxpayers shouldn't subsidize what private parties can pay for. And if there is not sufficient demand to support a course, then the taxpayers definitely should not subsidize one.

This has nothing to do with golf per se, which is no doubt a fine game. The same principle would apply to a public pistol range or a public bowling alley or a public swimming pool. Government doesn't ex- ist to provide recreation; that is not its purpose.

Nor is this meant to deny there are any arguments for having a golf course in Petersburg. There are a few. The high school and Virginia State University would benefit from a golf course. So would some of the 200 kids who allegedly showed some interest in golf by showing up for some lessons at the Lee Park softball field last year. But for $4 million, Petersburg could give each one of those kids a full set of clubs, lessons, and two tickets to the Masters at Augusta National -- and still come out ahead. (What's more, there would be no general-fund obligation in future years.)

There are arguments for rearranging deck chairs, too: They look better when grouped by color and placed in parallel rows, passengers can reach unoccupied chairs easier when they're placed two-by-two, etc. Still -- is that the most urgent issue aboard?

This isn't a question of any complexity, like what to do about Iraq or how to solve the nation's long-term health-care crisis. As Petersburg resident and former White House aide Linas Kojelis noted, news about the cost of reconstructing the golf course preceded by one day the headline in The Progress-Index, "Little Progress Seen in Scores: Finding, and Keeping, Qualified Teachers Is a Major Problem." As Kojelis also observed in a statement prepared a few weeks ago: "My golfing friends say that municipal courses are proverbial 'cash cows.' If this is so, why haven't private firms been clamoring to own or operate this course? Why couldn't the city issue a [Request for Proposals], inviting qualified private firms to buy and manage this course?"

FOUR MILLION bucks would pay for a lot of teachers and classroom computers. Or a lot of firemen. Petersburg could stand to raise its pay for firemen, who start out at $27,362 a year -- less than in surrounding localities (and less than they deserve). Or cops. Or building inspectors.

Would a golf course be nice? Sure. But spending that much city money on one also would be absurd, irresponsible, and stupid. As Petersburg resident Jeffrey Fleming told the city council: "I've always wanted a Corvette. I can afford one right now, but if I bought one, other things would suffer, like rent and utilities."

Just so. City leaders shouldn't stick the voters with this frivolous sand trap.