What do we do when a neighbor is floundering and our neighborhood could help? Most people would help. What if other neighbors refuse to help because they’re angry with the one in trouble? What do we say to them? Luckily a poet, Edwin Markham, gave us these words:

              "He drew a circle that shut me out-
              Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
              But love and I had the wit to win:
              We drew a circle and took him In!”

As neighbors of Wenatchee we face a call for help with the Town Toyota Center’s debt. While confusion delays Wenatchee’s decisions, one thing is certain: the Public Facilities District board is going to request a vote on a tax increase in the near future. Distasteful as it might be, we should support it.

 Voters in neighboring municipalities oppose that request. They’re angry at Mayor Johnson’s push to build the center and breaking his promise to never ask for increased taxes. I’m angry too. When I questioned the center’s profitability, he dismissed my concerns by saying in the long term it’ll be a great asset for the region. I backed off, thinking, “Oh, oh. He’s not listening and has created a juggernaut.”  

Some people want to punish Johnson and the voters who put him in office. My desire to punish him led me to recommend he resign and remove himself as a target for opponents. He’s finishing his term through 2011 and taking responsibility to prepare the 2012 budget. I respect his courage.

Punishing a city is a malignancy that weakens communities, especially when there are other options. Some people think one option is to sell the center. That won’t work. The PFD and city would still owe the debt.

Others say explore default. We’re told it’s unthinkable, but citizens are thinking about it. What can we learn about it?

Plenty, since municipalities have done it. A report on their experiences can be viewed at publicbonds.org, a nonprofit information source. Spokane’s River Square Parking Garage defaulted in 2001. Agencies downgraded the city’s bond ratings within months, increasing interest costs and restricting improvements. Lawsuits and countersuits erupted for years. Recently a professional bond counsel told me acrimonious fallout has become the worst part of the default.

Publicbonds’ report concludes, “As the cases … illustrate, there is no clean formula that determines who is accountable and who will bear the financial burden in case of a default. The outcome depends on circumstances and usually involves a litany of lawsuits. Investors are, in some cases, able to recover their money through litigation, which can involve the entire range of actors.” Competing attorneys could assemble a contentious cast.

I expect Wenatchee to meet its obligations, ease voter anger and earn respect from fiscal discipline. Until then neighboring leaders should remind citizens our communities are better able to achieve our goals when we have vibrant community neighbors.

And municipal neighbors should acknowledge their roles in creating the PFD. Even though many distrusted its financial projections, they created the center by redirecting portions of our state sales taxes. Leaders in any community could have avoided this mess by saying, “No, it’s not a realistic plan to generate tourism for my citizens’ tax revenues, let alone for Wenatchee.”

Not one community had the courage to block it, so we pay for it every year. We own it. We should find the courage to support a small increase in our investment at the     appropriate time. Support would be in our community’s interests and exemplify the neighborliness of our valley. We should support it on principle – being good neighbors.

And for those who flout heretical Wenatchee, let’s employ the will and wit to win. We’ll draw a circle and take them in.