Put Agendas Aside For Common Good

For the good of the community.

It’s the reason schools get built, even when most households don’t have school-age children.

It’s why police officers and firefighters are hired, even though most of us never need to call on them.

For the good of the community assumes community interests will rise above individual fears, worries and pettiness.

Or so it should be.

Unfortunately, much of the early discussion about the proposed expansion of the Spokane Convention Center has been muddied by political agendas and fits of pique.

Some local business leaders and politicians with personal agendas have ganged up on the Convention Center.

They grumble that the city should be focusing on high-tech jobs, suggesting the new center is a waste of public money.

These are unfair stabs and false choices designed to undermine a project that clearly would serve the community well.

There is no reason to think a convention center would stop high-tech development or waste money.

There is reason to think Spokane must act soon to pursue a new convention center or once again go off in a parochial huff and miss a ripe opportunity.

Changes in state law mean Spokane can build a convention center without any increase in taxes and with $60 million of locally generated tax revenues that currently are going to projects in other parts of the state.

However, this window of opportunity slams shut in 18 months.

That’s plenty of time to get the project started if two things happen.

First, the Public Facilities District that manages the Spokane Arena must agree to extend its taxing authority to the new convention center.

Second, citizens of Spokane County must begin to understand the public good from the project in preparation for a vote of approval.

These two challenges should be easily met.

The new Convention Center will generate hundreds of jobs, fill local hotels and bring $150 a day to the local economy with every conventioneer who visits.

Locals will get the benefit of larger car shows, flower shows, even gun shows that need a 100,000-square-foot venue.

The Public Facilities District must be careful not to get caught up in the politics and piques undermining the new Convention Center.

In the next few weeks, the PFD needs to recall its roots and remember what it means to do something for the good of the community.

The PFD should be invited to join the effort to help explain this project.

The PFD should be encouraged to bring their tight-fisted management to the project.

The PFD should insist that no vote be taken until next spring, so the public has had plenty of time to understand how a new convention center would be good for all who live, work and play around Spokane.