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News that the city council may pay for a study concerning a multipurpose center has stirred up more talk about economic development issues, at least at one of the websites where I normally troll for ideas, Erath County Rant and Rave on Facebook. Of course, whenever economic development issues are discussed, you’ll hear of wishes for various chain restaurants and, naturally, of the unrequited longing for a Home Depot or Lowe’s, with some speculation on the dark conspiracies which have allegedly sabotaged their efforts to come here. Actually, why some businesses come and others don’t is quite easy to understand. Businesses that think they can make a big enough profit to make moving here worthwhile will come here. Those that don’t, won’t. Yes—it’s really that simple—no need for government handouts or progress-strangling conspirators to be considered.
Not so simple are the great questions being raised by Ranters and Ravers over a prospective multipurpose facility: Do we need one? Should we get one to attract other businesses, or should we attract other businesses first and then build one? And how should we pay for it? Inspired by those who’ve taken the lead in raising this issue, I herewith offer a few thoughts of my own on the subject.
First, the issue of building a multipurpose facility was frequently kicked around by the council until about 2008. We discussed the possibility of building a facility that might include, among other things, a library, a senior citizens center, and a rec center. My recollection is that the onset of the Great Recession about 2008 dampened the talk, since several of us—myself included—thought that as the economy worsened, the prospects for financing such a facility dimmed. Work on such a project needed, in my opinion at least, to be postponed until good times returned.
Second, given that a new multipurpose center could conceivably last a century—after all , the current Rec Center was built in the 1930s, hosted one of Elvis Presley’s first concerts before he made it big on Ed Sullivan, and is still in use—we should plan for one with the utmost care. We should study previous studies, and, if necessary, have new studies as well. We should determine what we want this facility to be used for, and how it can be adapted over the next decades to meet needs not yet identified. And above all, we should consider how much it will cost and how it will be paid for.
Third, we should recognize that the most democratic way to pay for a prospective multipurpose facility is with general obligation bonds authorized by the voters in a bond election. No doubt any new facility will cost millions of dollars and reduce the possibility of tax cuts in the future. The politically active public will be most willing to shoulder the costs if it has the final say over its financing. A bond election is the best way to get the people on board.
Fourth, those members of the city council who want a new facility must understand they will have to bear two burdens—the burden of proving to the people that the facility in the price range they’ve adopted is actually needed, and the burden of abandoning, at least temporarily, the dream of a new facility should the people reject its financing at the polls. As a general rule, a vote of the people on a given issue should be accepted as definitive until the people change their minds. For example, although I initially supported the Proctor Pipeline I voted against it in council after the people voted against it in a bond election. Although I think the people were wrong to adopt Prop 1 I would, if still a member of the council, vote against abolishing the new EDC, given the people’s obvious desire, expressed in a free election, for its creation. Should the people reject the new facility in a bond election, those members of the city council who still want it must try to convince the people to reverse their decision in a new bond election rather than finance the facility in some other way. Otherwise, whatever benefits are created by a new facility may be offset by the consequences of going against the will of the people.
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton since 1987. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present). He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club, and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
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