Proposition: Implement a tax on discretionary activity (at the state level, think “sin tax” like those on the sale of alcohol & tobacco) in order to develop a community capital asset that will have a useful life well into the middle of this century. This asset will benefit a variety of local underserved organizations, many youth-oriented, by providing a facility for their activities which the community is currently in short supply of. It is also a facility that can be a new, complementary component to tourism efforts in the region. Once completed and in full use, it will generate upwards of $1 million of annual economic activity. Oh, and by the way, it comes with an anchor tenant willing to pay a portion of the building cost as well as arrange for the construction financing. Preliminary and conservative forecasts indicate a better than six to one ROI on the public investment.
From a business perspective, this certainly has the trappings of a strong investment. But in the end, it is a political perspective that will seal its fate. And, the current political perspective is mired in a recessionary economy and appears focused only on election-minded decisions.
Such a proposition, with four of the largest business organizations in the region supporting it, didn't even deserve a vote by county commissioners at a hearing yesterday. Based on comments by commission members, notably Commissioner Marc Boldt, it would not have passed. Boldt indicated that another group of politicians, members of the Vancouver City Council were not in favor of it, so he saw no reason to support it. What we’ll never learn is whether any of those individual political perspectives on the city council could have changed by the time the council would need to act on the proposition.
This outcome reminds me of the Jimmy Stewart classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, which undoubtedly will be shown a half-dozen times during the holidays. During the film, Stewart’s character, distraught over the pangs of the current economic situation (sound familiar?) gets a glimpse of what life would have been like without his influence. Well, we now get to see what our ‘Wonderful Life’ will be like without a first class stadium in our community; without a summer full of youth baseball and softball tournaments; without a spring and fall with regional and national soccer tournaments; without Single-A short season professional baseball; without the additional business all those activities would have brought not only to downtown, but to the entire county.
We must now recognize this opportunity is gone – but only this opportunity. There will be others and we need to be open to them and ready to take them on. As a business community, we also need to consider if we have the right political leadership in place or whether we need others with more business savvy in office so that as a community we’re better positioned to capitalize on opportunities when they present themselves.
Just a few years ago, the mayor of America’s Vancouver made the declaration, “Vancouver is open for business.” Those currently in elected office apparently no longer believe that, or have a very different idea of what “open for business” means.
