Is Mozingo plan a good one?
Editor,
According to the front page article in Monday’s Forum, the city council will be asked to approve the hiring of an architect to design the proposed Mozingo conference center.
The project has not yet been approved by the voters who are being asked to pass another sales tax issue to partially fund the project.
PARTIALLY FUND. The tax issue if approved will not generate enough revenue to pay off the proposed four MILLION dollar center. Mr. McDanel is proposing to take money earmarked to pay off the existing debt for the cart paths.
There are many more questions than answers from the current Maryville administration.
First, is the contract with the architect:
• Does the City have the authority to spend $220,650 plus $10,000 for landscaping plans (nearly a QUARTER-MILLION DOLLARS) on a project not yet approved by the voters?
• Is it contingent on voter approval to move forward with the conference center? (If not, it should be.)
• Mr. McDanel wants to enter into a contract with the architect BEFORE GETTING VOTER APPROVAL, stating that the center will be built eventually.
• Why would we invest this much money on a project that may NEVER BE APPROVED?
• It is this voter’s opinion that we should proceed ONLY AFTER voter approval is obtained.
Second, the size of the proposed center
• Mr. McDanel stated that the conference center could accommodate 500 people.
• Are there facts supporting the need for such, or is the administration suffering from delusions of grandeur?
• When has there ever been, or ever will be, a conference that large in Maryville?
• How does one host a 500-person conference with only a 40-room hotel next door?
• Are the even 500 hotel rooms in the entire city?
Third, tearing down the existing club house:
• Even if approved, tearing down the existing 20-year-old club house is a poor proposal.
• Was it so poorly built that it only lasted 20 years? Or is this just another grand delusion?
• I must assume there is an advisory committee involved in this proposal, but I have seen nothing published or who is on the committee if there is one.
Fourth, the funding as mentioned earlier:
• The project as reported is to cost $4,000,000 (FOUR MILLION DOLLARS).
• The proposed debt payments are $312,000 annually but the tax revenue is projected at only $240,000.
• The plan to pay the shortfall is to “Rob Peter to pay Paul” which is a bad idea.
• Do we really need a $4,000,000 facility, built with borrowed money, to host a few events?
• Where and how long is the payback if any?
We, the voters, are being asked to extend the existing Mozingo sales tax and approve another Mozingo sales tax as well.
Maryville already has one of the highest sales tax rates in the State at 8.475 percent. If both taxes pass we will be at 8.6 percent.
For the record, only St Louis and some of their suburbs have sales tax rates this high. Kansas City does not.
Citizens:
Please speak to your councilmen and women if you have similar concerns as mine.
Doug Stickley
Maryville resident and tax payer
