In baseball, as everyone knows, there is a time after the umpire cries ?strike three? that the batter should quietly return to the bench and sit down. It can be the worst call ever, but no amount of arguing will change the decision.
Some in the community believe it is time for supporters of the Florida Center for Performing Arts and Education to sit down, to accept defeat and move on.
They point to the failure of backers of the proposed performing arts center to win a place on the project list for the proposed extension of the Blueprint 2000 sales tax as proof that Tallahassee simply won?t support a center, despite years of trying by backers.
In an exclusive report coming this weekend in the Sunday Democrat and on Tallahassee.com, senior government writer Jeff Burlew will examine the strategies for what?s next by center supporters, whether the project was simply too controversial for Blueprint and if taking the project to the ballot as a single issue makes more sense.
Businessman Kim Williams, a member of the sales-tax committee and a former member of The Florida Center board, supports that strategy, according to Burlew.
?I?d like to see them take a break until after the sales-tax has been through the referendum process,? Williams says in Burlew?s report. ?And then it becomes a single issue.?
The politics of the debate fascinate me.
Opponents of the project have long tried to paint it as a rich vs. poor debate, saying that such a center is merely a play toy for the elite being proposed for funding with money from hardworking poor families through tax dollars.
Some even have tried to paint Tallahassee as a backward community with no taste for entertainment of the type associated with performing arts.
Supporters, on the other hand, have already downsized the original proposal and say what is being proposed now is primarily an educational facility that will offer performing arts of all types for all to enjoy.
That has not been enough and so far, after nearly a decade of pushing the project, the opponents appear to be winning, as the Leon County Sales Tax Committee voted overwhelmingly to take it off its project list, despite already having land set aside for the project, along with millions of dollars in hotel bed-tax dollars collected for the center.
What?s clear to me is the Sales Tax Committee made a political decision, not a judgment about whether the performing arts center is a project in the best interest of the community.
Members of the committee believe that placing it on the project list would have jeopardized passage ? or at least lessened the chances of approval ? of the entire Blueprint tax extension, which is expected to provide badly needed infrastructure and economic development funding.
Their judgment was that opponents of the performing arts center would have campaigned against the entire project on the basis of this one, relatively small project being on the list.
That was probably a politically wise move.
I wonder if the performing arts center, as long as current supporters and board members are in place, can ever win approval. I wonder if, politically speaking, the current project is simply damaged goods in the public?s eyes, given the political rhetoric that has transpired in the last decade.
That is an open question, as is what is next for supporters of the performing arts center, whether it is time to head to the dugout to sit down or pick up another bat and head back, wait for its next turn and get back in their swinging anew.
I?m looking to Burlew?s story on Sunday to provide insights into what is likely and what are the chances ? if any ? of eventual success. ?????????
You can send comments by clicking on my blogs on Tallahassee.com and Move.Tallahassee.com , e-mailing me at bgabordi@tallahassee.com or sending a private message on Facebook, Tallahassee.com or Twitter @bgabordi. My mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. Call me at 850-599-2177.
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Source: http://blogs.tallahassee.com/has-the-performing-arts-center-plan-simply-struck-out/
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