Tribune: “Scribner Place should not be a scare tactic”

Today’s Tribune editorial on the political games being played by Scribner Place’s city council opponents is the newspaper’s clearest and most scathingly accurate statement on the topic to date.

Previously, the Tribune has settled for stating its support for the Scribner Place project, but with today’s powerful expression of principle, it is evident that the growing sense of exasperation with hackneyed political demagoguery felt in the city’s emerging progressive corners has not passed unnoticed by the newspaper’s staff.

Because the Tribune’s editorials and columns are not archived on-line, we’ve copied the text for your reading pleasure.

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Scribner Place should not be a scare tactic

As debate continues and some insist on finding flaws with funding proposals for the Scribner Place project, the city is losing more time that could be spent building the proposed downtown development.

Next month, Mayor James Garner will present the City Council with a $16.8 million bond proposal that will be used to help fund the city’s portion of the project, which includes a YMCA, aquatic center and private development.

The bond is in jeopardy of being voted down. Some council members say they are concerned about one of three proposals that would use property taxes to back up the bond and save the city about $1.7 million.

The financial consultants – those who actually know – say the plan will not increase taxes on local residents. Instead, using property taxes only helps the city’s credit in securing the bond.

It appears that some council members are using the property tax backup as a scare tactic with constituents, yet another method of playing politics. At least one wants to remove the city from the project and hand it over to the YMCA. Again, those who know say that the YMCA would face the same financial hoops as the city. However, the city actually has more avenues of obtaining dollars.

Money to fund Scribner Place will not be used from the city’s general fund. They received $20 million from the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County. The city would be foolish to jeopardize that generous gift.

Downtown New Albany is not often given $20 million to help a dying area. Rather than politic that away, the council members who seem to invent new barriers need to realize the scope of what Scribner Place could mean for the future of downtown New Albany – including the west end, which could use a boost.