Letter: Fund arts campus privately
A recent letter-writer’s plea for a musical cultural center on Hilton Head Island funded by the taxpayers of Beaufort County is duly noted. I suggest that if he and other supporters want to create one, that they organize the people who want it, then they fund it, and operate it.
The local government has enough problems executing well those tasks with which it has some training and experience. Our government should not be in the entertainment business.
The proposal to have the taxpayers tax themselves, then operate a sophisticated business in a very small market is fraught with perils that don’t deserve to be placed on the back of the taxpayers.
Supporters should go with it, if they believe in its need and its success, but raise the money privately from the people who agree with them, and are willing to fund it through thick and thin. Don’t ask the taxpayers to pay for this very risky financial investment.
Jim Taylor
Hilton Head Island
This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Letter: Fund arts campus privately."