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Hildebrandt, Konrad
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TAB 6
Daily Herald (Provo, UT)
October 17, 2010
Watchdog: Cedar Hills 'hides' golf subsidy
Author: Caleb Warnock - Daily Herald
In Cedar Hills budget documents, a golf bailout is called "revenue."
Taxpayer watchdogs say the city is heavily involved in a game of hide-the-subsidy, while
companies trying to run local golf courses as businesses decry the unfair competition.
In a recent Daily Herald investigation of how much cities are spending to subsidize golf, Cedar
Hills was the only city that did not respond to a government records access request. In follow-up
requests, the Daily Herald was referred to a state budget filing, as well as a copy of the budget on
the city's website. The two documents tell different stories about the same golf course.
In an interview via e-mail, city manager Konrad Hildebrandt said the golf course "is projected
to be in the red roughly $6,490" at the end of the fiscal year.
But according to city documents, counting the shortfall as $7,000 is only possible if the city
counts the taxpayer expense of $1.2 million in loans as income rather than expense, the taxpayer
expense of $380,000 per year for the land payment as income rather than expense, and remove
the cost of depreciation or replacing equipment over time. Depreciation cost the city $256,000.
All told, Cedar Hills golf is "in the red roughly $6,490" only if the taxpayer's bill of $1,836,000
goes uncounted -- an amount three times larger than the money the course takes in greens fees.
"I think you would agree that the CH golf course is trending to be a great, positive and totally
non-subsidized course," Hildebrandt has said. "Every year our financials improve."
"It really doesn't come as a great surprise to the Taxpayers Association that cities want to hide
the performance of their golf courses," said Royce Van Tassell, of the Utah Taxpayers
Association. "They are inevitably drains on taxpayer dollars, and cities don't like to acknowledge
as much. It is unfortunate that Cedar Hills is playing hide the ball, and it is yet another sign of
why Cedar Hills and every city in Utah needs to get out of the golf business. Taxpayers don't
need to subsidize golf."
Cedar Hills and other cities have said spending millions on golf is no different than spending
money on parks or recreation. But while there are no businesses trying to run local parks, there
are companies struggling to make a profit on golf while cities essentially undercut their business
with courses being subsidized with millions of taxpayer dollars.
Billy Casper Golf, the largest municipal golf course management company in the U.S., recently
sent two officials to testify before the Utah privatization policy board about how cities are
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