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A Parks Budget Based On Hard Numbers

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 17, 2008

The Hillsborough County Commission today is scheduled to review a plan on how to spend more than $40 million in Community Investment Tax revenue on parks.

This is mostly the money that would have be spent on Championship Park. Commissioners last year rejected the plan pushed by Commissioner Jim Norman to develop a major amateur sports complex in northeastern Hillsborough County.

The Community Investment Tax is a 30-year, half-cent sales tax that was passed by voter referendum in 1996 to fund capital improvements.

While today's session should not be nearly as controversial as the Championship Park hearings, the plan offered by Parks Director Mark Thornton won't please everyone.

There are some omissions - including money to connect the county's trail system.

And the budget includes an ambitious project that deserves careful review by commissioners. The budget includes $15 million for a youth soccer complex that could generate revenue by hosting regional, state and national tournaments, much as Norman said Championship Park would.

Unlike Championship Park, which would have had facilities for numerous sports, this complex would be designed solely for soccer. Whether it makes money or not, there is a documented need for such a complex in Hillsborough.

Before making its capital improvement recommendations, the parks department developed a master plan based on a thorough review of available facilities and community needs. The plan appears to make the maximum use of tax dollars - essential during this tough budget times.

For instance, the county staff found that while some Little League fields were overwhelmed, other nearby baseball fields were hardly used.

Rather than simply paying for more fields, Thornton wants to work with Little League officials to reconfigure league boundaries.

The lack of funding for extending the trail through the county is regrettable, but Thornton stresses that project would be funded in the next budget.

First he wants a study conducted on how the county can make the trails more accessible - so visitors don't have to drive to get to them. That makes sense. But a completed trail should be a county priority.

Thornton's recommendations appear to be a compromise that gives Hillsborough a solid game plan for meeting residents' future recreational needs.

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