As a member of the Strategic Planning Commission and of Vision Fountain Hills I have spent the last three years pouring over our town’s financial condition.

This lagoon project is beginning to be reminiscent of the ill-fated theater complex; a big idea with no financing supporting it. Just like the theater proposal, the numbers don’t work. You don’t have to look past the fact that the number “3,700 people” is being bandied about, enough for each person to have a six foot square.

The difference in this project to the theater project is that the public is being asked to pay for it. The theater project couldn’t find one sucker to fund it but somehow politicians think they can find a whole town full.

Assume that it will cost $1 million per year for water purification, payroll, insurance, etc. to operate the lagoon. That would require $40 million in retail sales or 200,000 people (550 per day) paying a $5 entry fee, or any combination of the two to just break even.

Lastly, the statement that Plan B is “other than a property tax” is at best misleading. The idea that this proposal is an alternative capable of erasing our budgetary shortfall is alchemy dressed up as forward thinking.