The Gadfly On The Ford Center Wall
Editorial: This is the closest thing to an editorial you'll ever read here. The MAPs sales tax extension to improve the Ford Center. Yes. I don't live in Oklahoma City, so some will discount my support; that's fine. A lot of us who live in the burbs spend money in the city, and the sales taxes we contribute will help foot the bill for the improvements. As I am sometimes reminded, I once (as a radio talk show host) opposed MAPs. The first go-round, it seemed to me at the time, was a pipe dream. Then-Mayor Ron Norick, with whom I shared the Civic Center Auditorium for a 1957 Elvis Presley concert, had the vision in the 1990s; I did not. Can anyone argue that MAPs has not been the best thing that's happened to downtown Oklahoma City since the underground Chinese opium dens there were bulldozed shut? I watched as urban renewal, known as I. M. Pei's urge to destroy cities, turned downtown OKC into a ghost town for decades. We now have a downtown sports complex that's a major draw. Whether OKC lands a professional basketball team is beside the point to me; upgrading the Ford Center would make it a (more) major venue for star performer concerts and convention events that might otherwise go elsewhere. A pro BB team would be icing on the cake and a certain plus for Bricktown merchants, restaurant and bar operators.
A major reason to support the MAPs vote on March 4th is the array of nay-saying liberals aligned against it. "Doc Hoc" and Nathaniel Batchelder chief among them. Batchelder, the Peace House guru, rails against the sales tax as doing harm to those with lower incomes, yet it is those with higher incomes who spend more money and thus, pay more in sales taxes. The sales tax also catches those, like me, who don't live in the city but spend money there. Thus, the "burden" is one shared by non-residents.
There are those in opposition who are miffed at the city's business leadership because, they say, the leadership wants to repeal the state's new immigration law. Fine. Let's hear their opposition and see what the merits are.
The argument that it is "MAPs For Millionaires" ignores reality; major cities compete for major sports franchises by financing the facilities that make their cities attractive to owners. That is the fact, and to ignore it is to be relegated to an also-ran when competing for a team.
Mayor Mick Cornett says the vote is a question of whether the city wants to continue to move forward. The question deserves a resounding answer: Yes.
A major reason to support the MAPs vote on March 4th is the array of nay-saying liberals aligned against it. "Doc Hoc" and Nathaniel Batchelder chief among them. Batchelder, the Peace House guru, rails against the sales tax as doing harm to those with lower incomes, yet it is those with higher incomes who spend more money and thus, pay more in sales taxes. The sales tax also catches those, like me, who don't live in the city but spend money there. Thus, the "burden" is one shared by non-residents.
There are those in opposition who are miffed at the city's business leadership because, they say, the leadership wants to repeal the state's new immigration law. Fine. Let's hear their opposition and see what the merits are.
The argument that it is "MAPs For Millionaires" ignores reality; major cities compete for major sports franchises by financing the facilities that make their cities attractive to owners. That is the fact, and to ignore it is to be relegated to an also-ran when competing for a team.
Mayor Mick Cornett says the vote is a question of whether the city wants to continue to move forward. The question deserves a resounding answer: Yes.
Labels: Gadfly's Columns
posted by Mike McCarville @ 12:01 AM
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