THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240201
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: 63 lines
Money, filthy lucre, moola, loot, gelt, dinero, geetus, long green - whatever you want to call it - it goes to the core of almost every problem facing mankind, except maybe teen-age acne.
It's an immutable law of nature. Money solves many problems, whether they're personal, public or business-related. Individuals and even nations have been known to go to war over it. Kingdoms have been toppled by it. Souls have been bought and sold with it. Songs have been sung over it.
It whisks away war debts, mortgages, utility bills, salaries, taxes, medical bills and a kazillion other obligations that one must attend to in the course of living. Having and maintaining a consistent source of money to cover them all remains a continual source of worry for everybody - well, almost everybody.
The old saying that money can't buy happiness is a bunch of hooey dreamed up by some misty-eyed optimist who must have been rich to start with. It's true that all the money in the world can't buy peace of mind, but without it nobody has any peace of mind.
Money has been documented as a source of much evil and cruelty dating back to biblical times. Countless acts of stupidity, arrogance and downright greed have been attributed to it, which brings us to a couple of recent developments of local and state import:
One is the ongoing pursuit of a National Hockey League franchise in Hampton Roads, or more specifically - Norfolk - a move hailed as a one-way ticket to ``major league'' status and untold riches for the entire region. To get this gem, all surrounding municipalities in the region must pledge hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for 25 or 30 years to help build a 20,000-seat arena in downtown Norfolk. Whether or not the taxpayers in these communities buy into this proposition remains to be seen.
Another is the ongoing hand-wringing at the local, state and national level over proposed campaign finance reforms. Millions of dollars from lobbyists pour into campaign coffers each year to influence politicians and it has worked beautifully for years - which is the reason the reforms were proposed. The problem comes in weaning away politicians who have become extremely attached to using that money to pay off campaign and personal debts - or at least forcing them to reveal who gave it to them. Reform taking place is - how do we say this delicately - an extremely unlikely scenario.
Still another is the haggling between Virginia Beach municipal and school officials over how the local tax revenue pie should be divvied up. This has been a point of contention since Blackbeard bypassed this area to set up shop in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. City finance gurus recently came up with the idea of allotting the school system 53.13 percent of six of 14 existing city revenue sources to pay for yearly school operations. One aim is to stop the annual bickering over money. It hasn't worked. School officials say it's not enough. They want 53.13 percent of all city revenue sources, not just six. Don't expect the haggling to end until Blackbeard reappears at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
In yet another, the city reportedly has accepted a $750,000 settlement from a local architectural firm that designed defective swimming pools in three new or nearly new municipal recreation centers. The city has spent $2.2 million in repairs over the past few years, but decided not to press its suit in court to get the whole enchilada. One reason: the city's legal eagles feel they have a 50-50 chance of winning the case in court. There are other factors as well, but it takes a Philadelphia lawyer to figure them out. However, it doesn't take one to figure out that $750,000 doesn't equal $2.2 million.