DOLLARS or sense? Profits or principles? Does the end justify the means?

These have long been core struggles for humans, particularly those in a representative democracy built upon free enterprise. The shading of decisions in favor of dollars/profits/accomplishing an end has long been commonplace though only rarely justifiable. There really is very little “gray area” in such either/or decisions. Most scandals and criticism of government stem from variations of this central dilemma.

All this is by way of leading up to a topic, and verdict, that likely will gain the writer few new friends. A foot fault is hereby declared in the all-out push by this community’s leadership to build what is now being called the Tennis Center of Georgia. A line has been crossed that should not have been. We, meaning this community, are better than that.

The 74-court center, on land Berry College is prepared to donate off the new Armuchee Connector, is an excellent idea. It would very likely do everything currently envisioned — a $16 million positive impact annually on the local economy, hundreds of new jobs, national attention from having the largest tennis complex in the United States, a steady stream of thousands of visitors and so on. There’s not a darned thing about it not to like — except for the funding scheme the consortium of boosters has come up with and the methodology undertaken to get that money.

GREATER ROME has won a considerable and deserved reputation for its “up by our own bootstraps” economic and lifestyle revival over the past two decades. This has almost entirely been based on a concept of “pay as you go” and avoiding debt or new taxes other than those voluntarily imposed by the voters. Rome/Floyd did not beg, borrow or steal the funds it deemed necessary.

One can’t blame community leaders for wanting this tennis center accomplished the day after tomorrow if possible. In bad times for growth and revenues and employment, it is the equivalent of landing a major industry.

The price tag has been put at $13.6 million, almost half of which would come from local funds (including the $1.5 million the Berry acreage is valued at). There’s some existing SPLOST money, for approved tennis courts not yet built, available but a special penny tax, this region’s preferred method for paying for such things, is not possible. A new one, without a tennis center, was just approved and it will probably be three years before another referendum shows up. The local governments, like most, are struggling in recessionary times and nothing “extra” is in sight.

Hence, the consortium of movers and shakers — the Rome and Floyd County governments, the chamber of commerce, Berry College, the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Coosa Valley Tennis Association — are going to lobby the General Assembly for the other $7.5 million via bond money.

A top professional lobbying firm, ConnectSouth, has been hired to plead the case. It is heavy with Republican muscle and arm-twisters.

AS THE CONSORTIUM is a mix of private and public entities let us pray that paying such a top-dollar outfit is coming solely from the entities that are not tax supported (Berry, the chamber, the tennis association). If a penny of local tax money is going to be used for lobbyists the booing and hissing should commence.

Just as troubling is the specter of asking to use the credit card of state taxpayers. One of the noted “advantages” of this route mentioned is that if there is a default it would be the state, not the local entities, that would be on the hook. Ahem, last we heard state taxpayers and local taxpayers are the same people.

Certainly — another supportive point made — this bond thing is commonplace and communities around the state have previously benefited while Greater Rome has never before gotten (or asked) for anything. Heck, the governor’s home

county of Houston has practically become wall-to-wall state special projects in the past seven years while Rome/Floyd, as always, added just as much, and probably better, with homegrown tax dollars.

Nonetheless, and particularly in these times, the end does not justify such means. For Rome to get its $7.5 million the tennis project would have to be added to the $900 million the governor is already asking in new bonds even though nearly all economists agree the current national woes have been caused by overextended consumer credit. This is also known as “living beyond your means” and should apply to tennis centers as well as new cars. The currently heard message to the populace: Debt is bad, savings is good.

EVEN NOW, consumer debt in the U.S. has been pegged as equaling 98 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) of $14 trillion. The national debt is expected to pass $14 trillion with new borrowing this year — those same consumers, now called taxpayers, owe that as well.

And Georgia? Well, it is currently paying $1.3 billion in principal/interest on past bonded debt. That’s 7.17 percent of the constitutionally set maximum of 10 percent.

This is simply not the moment for anyone, much less the taxpayers, to get “another day older and deeper in debt.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to come up with that $7.5 million than hiring professional arm twisters to get it. The tennis center is an excellent idea and well worth pursuing. What really has to be questioned is our local leaders falling into the snare of getting into the debt of politicians for favors received when they previously have successfully avoided it for so long.

There are other ways to pay for such a venture other than begging for alms from the state, or even Washington, and then making believe it is “free money” because it will be paid for by a larger pool of taxpayers. Heck, Greater Romans are still paying off some of those Atlanta expressways and the governor’s “Go Fish” dream — anybody like that?

What ever happened to thinking outside the box instead of having the box lid snapped closed upon us?

Just one example of an “alternative approach”:

Create an alliance of community banks — Greater Rome has a bunch of them — to front that $7.5 million as a loan. Most of them are desperate for safe and secure investments with steady if low interest yields at this time. If local capitalists don’t want to put their money where their mouths are regarding the center, then why should the state taxpayers?

PART OF the local-share money in the current plans is a portion of hotel/motel tax collections being set aside for the project. The center is expected to add “45,000 to 50,000 bed nights a year” from the 20 or more big tennis tournaments a year it will lure. Hence, adding a surcharge of $10 a room a night would bring in $500,000 a year — and that’s not even counting revenue from existing rental levels quite a bit of it coming from other visitors dropping by for sports events (NAIA bowl being just one).

Such a surcharge should, of course, be temporary and specifically come off when the $7.5 million is repaid.

That new revenue flow would largely not be created by Greater Romans but rather from Georgians or those from other states directly benefiting from our investment in facilities such as the tennis center.

If the SPLOST is “pay as you go” then this could be called “pay as they come.”

Pierre-Rene Noth is the former Rome News-Tribune editorial page editor.