Why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free?
How many times have you heard that rather colorful remark? We’re using it today as a piece of advice to the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission.
Of course. What did you think this editorial was going to be about?
For months now, the commission has faced a diffcult situation. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s largest employer and the town’s single largest driver of economic prosperity, put forward a request. The college plans to develop a performance hall on campus.
When the Walton Arts Center announced itsexpansion primarily happen in Bentonville, UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart saw opportunity to renovate the old fieldhouse on campus into a long-needed 700-seatperformance hall. Leaders of the music programs at the school are beside themselves with glee, as they should be.
Now, back to the request: Facing a $17 million price tag, Gearhart asked the advertising commission for the tidy sum of $1 million toward its construction. That’s a city-based agency, funded by a voter-approved tax on hotels, motels and restaurant sales, being asked to contribute money for a state-owned facility.
The case for doing that remains weak. Some in Fayetteville, however, seem quite eager to give the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission’s money to the UA.
Enter Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, who oft ered this: Dedicate a fixed portion of the ad commission’s annual budget to provide funding to the UA. He suggested a cap of $125,000 every six months.
Clark’s argument? The university is a major driver of the local economy and many of its events bring people to Fayetteville. Those people eat in restaurants and stay in hotels and motels, which meets the commission’s goal of drawing people and their money to town.
Clark isn’t a fan of a $1 million commission gift for construction of a building. So his lawyerly mind conjured up this workaround as a more justifi able reach into local funding.
Back to that cow and her milk. The commission’s funding is designed to promote “putting heads in beds” and butts in restaurant booths. It’s logical to suggest the money should be devoted to events, projects and organizations that wouldn’t otherwise do that, although the commission doles out smaller sums to some ongoing enterprises.
Most of what the university does, we’re told, is focused like a laser on its mission of education. That’s why the university argues its properties should be exempt from property taxes, for example, even when its rented out for a Walmart store. But that’s a dift erent matter.
It’s safe to say in most instances that the people who come to Fayetteville for UA events would come to town regardless of whether the advertising commission becomes the UA’s cash cow.
Fayetteville voters didn’t back the tax that funds the commission to create a new source of revenue for the state-owned university.
How about we say it’s a symbiotic relationship and not suggest one should fund the other because of this benefit or that.
Let the university be the university, with just as much right as any other organization to pitch specifi c funding requests to the commission to support events. There’s no need to create a special category of ongoing funding from local taxes to support the events the UA holds or hosts as part of its educational mission.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/28/2012