Where would we be now?

By Sean Pearson, editor
A lot can change in 18 months.
It was just March of last year when Homer residents gathered at open houses around town to brainstorm, discuss ideas, contemplate concepts and eventually vote on whether or not to accept an $8 million bond proposition to build a new Town Plaza.
Or was it a Town Square?
It’s kind of hard to remember all those fancy details now that the city says we’re facing a significant budget shortfall that threatens to shut down the community schools program and leave Homer short on police and fire protection.
At least that’s what we’re told.
Where were all these concerns about “quality of life” when we were trying to decide between a fountain or indigenous wildflowers in the Town Center? After all, this was a huge amount of debt for the community to take on to build our dreamy, new city hall.
For some of us, that concept of “quality of life” made a significant shift in light of recent economic times. We don’t seem to care so much about neatly manicured shrubs and fountains and community gardens any more.
At the time of the town hall debate, we spent some $492,289 on consultants and landscape architects and public-flow pattern experts.
I wonder how many community school classes that would buy?
And, while the money paid for that first phase of the Town Center study came from a $2 million state capital improvement grant, and not from city coffers, it seems to put things in perspective when you consider that:

• Library: one day closing will reportedly save the city $3,816 per day – (based on 2008 figures.)
• Heating cost of West Campus: $140,000 per year
• One police, one dispatcher, one part-time judicial services administrative assistant: $217,987 in salaries and benefits.
• Community Schools: $116,407

Additional cuts affect Boys and Girls Club, Haven House, the Homer Volunteer Fire Department … the list runs on. And, on top of these cuts, we won’t see money for economic development in this proposed bone-cutting budget. Some economists argue a struggling economy nonetheless needs investment in order stay afloat.
The Homer Chamber of Commerce will not be receiving any help from the city, nor will there be money available to lobby for more funds as the Mayor Hornaday had at one point requested. The city installed its climate action plan – a series of steps to reduce energy usage through more efficient measures – yet now can’t afford to make those changes.
What if we had passed that ordinance to build the Town Plaza? What if we had really bitten off more than we could chew? Certainly, we would be regretting it now. And, while the project would no doubt have provided something of an economic boon in terms of jobs, it wasn’t something that could sustain itself beyond the initial flux of construction.
So now City of Homer voters are facing a set of totally different issues come Oct. 6, as we decide whether to support or oppose a 3 percent sales tax on non-prepared grocery items. According to the City, this 3 percent grocery tax will make or break us this year – and they are obviously pushing hard for its reinstatement.
Ultimately, however, the decision is ours.
Kudos to the people of Homer for making the less-than-popular, but incredibly responsible decision last year to curtail our desires to decorate the city with pretty new buildings and flowers and fountains. Now, you have a chance to make another difficult decision that will inevitably affect Homer’s “quality of life” by voting yet again on the sales tax question.
Do your homework.

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