$2.5 Million For a Basketball Court

South Ogden City Council held a public hearing for the proposed rec. center gym space basketball court to be built in connection with the Weber County School District and the New South Ogden Jr. High. As expected the majority of the comments were directed against the proposal. Though a few people did speak out in favor, the general consensus from the comments was we do not want a tax increase and if we must then let's make it worth it.  Finally we learned this gym space will be no more than a glorified basketball court for the bargain price of $2.5 million.

    Mr. Darrington presented an outline of how the facilities would be run, explaining it would closely match the Central Davis Junior High/Layton City Gym Facility. You can see a diagram of the facility here (See Gym Facility). (I have also added the Gym Facility to our download section.) However as the night continued we found out, it will not be as close to this facility as we may have been lead to believe. For instance there will be no pool, no fitness equipment, and no walking track. Once citizens heard no walking track, the whispers in the room quickly turn to the realization this [the gym space] is a $2.5 Million basketball court, nothing more. Granted our kids do have to drive all over Weber County to play basketball, but is this really a smart move with taxes?

Mr. Darrington presented a cost breakdown by property taxes to help us understand how much we would be paying, he used an old salesman approach in explaining the cost:

• If your house assessed for $100,000, you pay $2.19 a month.
  
• If your house assessed for $175,000, you pay $3.83 a month.
  
• If your house assessed for $250,000, you pay $5.47 a month.
  

Most of the attendees saw right through this math and pointed out we don't pay property taxes monthly, we pay them annually. So in reality it should look more like this:

• If your house assessed for $100,000, you pay $26.28 annually.
  
• If your house assessed for $175,000, you pay $45.96 annually.
  
• If your house assessed for $250,000, you pay $65.64 annually.
  

The cities financial planner for the bond answered an interesting question from one of the concerned citizens. This citizen pointed out it would be cheaper to pay a general obligation bond than it is to pay a sales tax bond. The financial planner corrected him by saying thought this is true a sales tax bond allows you to avoid the cost of an election. 

Is the city council looking to avoid an election because they know the citizens of South Ogden would not pay for $2.5 million basketball court? Is that why they are rushing into this bond? This kind of decision should go to the general public.

A few people spoke for it. One in particular was Mike Junk, Ogden City Attorney (and he taught my business law class at Weber); was for the proposal and gave a good lawyerly argument in the gym/rec basketball courts defense. Interestingly most of those who spoke for it also said they thought we should expand this. The resonating theme: Why just build a basketball court for Jr. Jazz and Volleyball? If we are going to spend the money let's do it right.

Conclusion: Though this idea has merit and will be of use, only a small percentage of South Ogden citizens will use this. It is extremely limited in what it can be used for and is a waste of money. If people are going to raise their taxes, then let's do this right. Mayor Garwood himself said he would never use the facility. So why are we raising taxes for everyone if no one is going to use it? In the end as one citizen said, "This is in the bag," and he is probably right; the council has made up its mind regardless of what the majority of those who attended had to say.

On a darker note, right after the council was done explaining how this was the smart thing to do and could afford this, they went ahead and made an announcement they are cuting the city budget by 5%. Ironic, don't you think. If the city can't afford its own budget, how are we going to afford this basketball court?