January 2, 2006

Quadruple Bogey 2

Today's Tennessean examines the politics behind the poor location of four money-losing golf courses the state built as tourist attractions, but which instead have become leeches on taxpayers' wallets. It's a story that BillHobbs.com readers first learned about on Dec. 15 and Chattanooga newspaper readers learned about on Dec. 17. Here's an excerpt from Trent Seibert's Tennessean story today:

Taxpayers looking to find out what went wrong will see some of the blame being laid far from the golf course. Instead, fingers are pointing at a tall hill in downtown Nashville topped by blocks of imposing limestone - the clubhouse, of sorts, of the Tennessee General Assembly.

The ball started to slice off-course when the decision was made to site the Bear Trace's courses not based on good golf sense, but instead to put courses in the districts of powerful state legislators. And the Trace's gorgeous scenery and its Nicklaus pedigree haven't been strong enough to overcome golfers' reluctance to tramp to rural locations, such as Henderson and Crossville. In other words, the Bear Trace turned out to be political pork. And now taxpayers will have to eat it.

In 1994, before the courses were built, Barnett and Orville Bach, an economics professor at an Eaststate community college, crunched the numbers on the Bear Trace. They concluded that the state's $20 million loan would be a major risk for taxpayers.

"We did a great deal of research," Barnett said. "Our big concern was that the Tennessee taxpayers were taking all the risk. What we predicted has occurred."

Not only did they raise the red flag, they waved it like mad, notifying state Comptroller William Snodgrass, showing up at public meetings and sending copies of their study to each of the state's 132 legislators. They received a response from only one lawmaker, he said.

Snodgrass wrote to them but only to dismiss their concerns. Plenty of golfers will want to travel to these courses and pay higher greens fees than at other state courses, Snodgrass wrote in a Dec. 21, 1994, letter, because "our staff felt these projections are very realistic, given the prestige of Jack Nicklaus signature courses."

Snodgrass has since retired from state service. House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, who was also a member of the State Building Commission that signed off on the contract to develop the courses, could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE: Bob Krumm has 12 great questions that the Tennessean ought to be asking about the Bear Trace golf course boondoggle. I have a 13th - did state Sen. Doug Henry, chairman of the Senate finance committee, ask questions like those before before greenlighting the $20 million bond issue for the Bear Trace courses? If not, then, a 14th question: Wouldn't Bob Krumm make a better senator?

The Nashville Knucklehead has some thoughts as well.