Homeless in Arizona

Of course that never happened and for years the Phoenix government golf course illegally lost millions of dollars.

Of course the obvious solution is for the city of Phoenix to get out of the golf business, but that ain't going to happen.

And of course with the city of Phoenix golf course offering golfing at dirt cheep subsidized prices there is never going to be an incentive for private golf course to open and provide the same services at market prices.

Source

Phoenix OKs plan for golf courses

By Amy B Wang The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Mar 7, 2013 10:58 PM

Phoenix officials have decided to keep all of the city’s municipal golf courses open by hiring a private company to help turn things around and paying off about $17 million in debt.

The city’s golf advocates considered the move a win, especially since some of the previous options included shuttering some or all of the courses.

The Phoenix City Council on Wednesday voted 8-1 to move the city’s golf program into the general fund, meaning taxpayers will subsidize the programs much like they do other parks and recreation.

The city created the Phoenix Golf enterprise fund in 1981 so that the city’s courses — Aguila, Cave Creek, Encanto, Maryvale, Palo Verde and Papago — would pay for themselves through user fees. In theory, the program would not need support from the general fund, the taxpayer-supported fund that covers the bulk of the city's costs such as employee salaries and services such as trash pickup.

However, over the past 13 years, the golf fund has accumulated a deficit expected to reach about $17 million by the end of fiscal 2013.

Experts blamed the diminishing popularity of golf nationwide, with a growing number of golf courses as well as the slow economy.

Under the plan adopted Wednesday, the city plans to pay down the existing debt over a three-year period at $5.7 million per year.

City officials want to hire someone in the private sector to suggest ways to bring in revenue through outsourcing or development.

“This needs to be implemented as soon as possible to stop the bleeding,” Councilman Sal DiCiccio said.

The city also would tap into Phoenix Parks Preserve Initiative money to pay down some of the debt.

Mayor Greg Stanton encouraged residents to think of golf as another “recreation service that the city provides.”

“There’s a lot of other issues that are being talked about here today, but the core of it is a change of philosophy — a big, important change — that involves both fiscal reality but also a change of mind-set about what municipal golf means to the people of this city,” Stanton said.

Councilman Jim Waring cast the only vote against the item. While he praised the ad hoc golf committee and city staff for their research and recommendations, he remained skeptical of the plan’s assumption that they could find enough cost savings through outside proposals.

Waring also said he was wary of the timing, when sales-tax revenue continues to come in below projections.

“I certainly have concerns about this competing with police and fire and our basic, core government functions versus golf,” Waring said. “So, I don’t want people to take this as an anti-golf vote or an anti- recreation vote. It’s just, that really concerns me, the perception out there at a time we’re not hiring police officers but we are doing this.”

City officials said that simply writing off the debt — essentially, money the Phoenix general fund has lent over the years to the golf enterprise fund — would affect the city’s AAA credit rating and thus the general fund.

“If we don’t find a way to fund it or pay that debt down, it sends a bad signal to the market that we’re unable to handle our own internal borrowings, which basically is what has happened,” said Jeff DeWitt, chief financial officer for Phoenix.

Last year, the city formed an 11-member ad hoc committee tasked to explore options to save the golf program. After months of public hearings and workshops, the group recommended several of the points included in the plan the council approved.

Many council members who voted for the plan said they wanted to consider every possible option that would allow the city to keep its golf program running.

“I would have never learned how to play golf had it not been seven bucks for me to walk on a golf course,” Councilman Daniel Valenzuela said. “And I’m not very good at it ... but it’s nice to know that that option is there for the inner-city kids and families that live within our city.”