Stuart Needs To Plan
It is expensive to run a city. Stuart is fortunate that it will be receiving a fairly large pay day in the near future from the PFOA court settlement. I don’t know how much it will be but enough to implement the plan that I am outlining to help with those costs.
The worst thing that the city could do is spend the money on one-time purchases. All that will do is dissipate money that will never be seen again. The money should also not be used to fund ongoing expenses. Again, that would mean that the city will become accustomed to living beyond its means.
Stuart should treat this windfall as an endowment just like any non-profit or university would. That way Stuart can have a cushion to lend itself money and then repay the fund with interest in perpetuity. There are very few local governments that are given this opportunity. The money in the endowment that wasn’t actively lent to city entities would be earning interest of currently 5% or more in a Florida government fund.
The city will shortly be looking to borrow money to implement planned improvements to the 10th Street Recreation Center and Guy Davis Park. It will also need funds to repurpose the Wells Fargo Building for use as City Hall and then do the same for the current City Hall site. Moving City Hall can only be done after a referendum as required by the city charter.
All these improvements are within the CRA. The CRA will receive about $5 million dollars in TIF taxes this year. That is more than enough to repay the Stuart Endowment for the money borrowed at market interest rates. It is a win-win for everyone.
I am not taking a stand on whether the move to Wells Fargo should take place. I think that needs to have much more planning and a referendum once a proposed plan is known. What I am proposing is a way to fund projects and instead of paying interest to anyone else, the city would be paying interest to itself. As the endowment grows, the money would be available for other capital improvement loans. Projects could be self-funded, and Stuart’s future would be more secure.
There may be a tendency for the commission to shove money to their favorite cause. That should be vehemently resisted even if organizations that want the money promise to pay it back. As we have seen, organizations seldom live up to their original agreements when it comes to Stuart government, and then Stuart government rolls over. This endowment is for the government of Stuart, and like any endowment, it can be created with rules and parameters.
Strategic plans are nice, but they are usually just dreams. This settlement could be life changing for generations of citizens. I hope the unique nature of this windfall can be appreciated. That would mean the commission would need to have a long view that political bodies seldom have. This is another one of those decisions that reveal statesmanship or just political gutlessness.
