The county basketball program and the bill charged by the local school system for use of school gyms have received an amazing amount of discussion since Thursday. (See story on page 1A.) But the more the issue is discussed, it seems fewer clearcut answers are found. Before you jump with your opinion, here are a few points and counterpoints to consider:
• Basketball is not about life or death. It’s a sport, a good one, but if the season had failed to happen this year, it’s not a crisis. No kid has ever said, “Looking back, I turned to drugs and became an ax murderer because I couldn’t play round ball that one season.”
• The program is about more than jump-shots. Studies show kids in sports pick up all kinds of life skills: leadership skills, sportsmanship, cooperation and discipline. Positive role models found in coaches fill a void for many children.
• The school board has a duty to manage its facilities in a fiscally responsible manner.
• Older school gyms around here were built with property taxes from county residents. More recently, gyms have been constructed using sales tax money collected through a special purpose local option sales tax after the school board promoted and county voters approved by referendum. Technically the taxpayers own all them, but not all were funded from property taxes.
• The $50,000 the school board will receive from the county this year for Rec. league use of school gyms STILL amounts to cash collected from landowners through property taxes.
• The county charges the school system each year for billing landowners for the schools’ taxes, done along with the county’s property tax. Most Georgia counties do this. The Pickens schools will pay $500,000 this year for the county-provided billing service.
• With the gym use agreement, the county finds itself maintaining a gym on the Jasper Elementary campus, not adjacent to any park facility, an arrangement almost sure to increase operational costs.
•Rec. league players get the Jasper Elementary gym as-is, the county likely won’t make any substantial upgrades to a building they don’t own. This point becomes especially ironclad if the county plans to build its own gym in the near future.
• Ten school gyms stand in this county. Surely that is enough court space for everyone––rec. department or school team––to get court time if properly managed.
• It would be wasteful and inefficient for a county of 30,000 to have two organizations (schools and rec. department), each with its own stock of gyms. Far better to manage what we have for everyone’s use and benefit.
• $50,000 is too much to spend on a program that includes just 420 participants for about two and a half months.
• This year, 420 kids will participate in the Rec. basketball program. Each pays $75. That’s expensive for families with several kids.
• Fiscal conservatives must understand sports programs offer many great benefits to a community: a greater attraction for industries looking to relocate; something positive for kids. Spending for youth activities can ultimately reduce the cost of law enforcement.
• Sports advocates must realize many people don’t participate in team sports, don’t have children, and don’t want their tax dollars spent supporting other people’s hobbies.
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