To the editor:

While the federal government is pumping $700 billion into our national economy to keep the country afloat, our local leaders have decided to do just the opposite. Our water and utilities project (Stewart’s Folly) is unnecessarily siphoning off huge amounts of disposable income from the local economy and destroying our business base.

Recently, the Chamber of Commerce reported that more than 100 businesses, (Chamber members) closed their doors in Cape Coral so far this year. These businesses are dependent on something called “disposable income.” Disposable income is the money that residents have for spending, saving, or investing after all taxes and obligations have been paid disposable income is also known as discretionary income, or spendable income.

An increase in disposable income is considered a sign of prosperity while a drop in disposable income is often a sign of an economic slowdown or as we watch local businesses collapse, “economic meltdown” might be more appropriate.

If we look at the efficiencies built into the utility projects in Bonita Springs, Sarasota County and Port St. Lucie and when we look at the inefficiencies in Cape Coral’s projects then one begins to realize that anywhere between $40 and $80 million per project in disposable income is unnecessarily taken out of the Cape Coral economy without considering interest and other charges.

It’s my understanding that almost everyone forced onto the utilities takes the 20-year payment plan. For those who use this option, the price of poker really goes up. In SW-6 & SW-7 anyone who takes the 20-year plan will have to pay back a lot more than the $17,000.00 we hear about. In fact, with interest over the 20-year period, the bottom line figure climbs to $37,020.00 for a two-lot site. This is disposable income that is being extracted from our economy over the next 20 years. If you multiply this amount by the 6,200 properties in SW-6 & SW-7 the total amount of disposable income removed from our economy is $229.5 million.

These numbers aren’t perfect because some people already have water and some sites are larger than two-lots but this gives us some idea of the magnitude of the drain on our economy that will take place over the next 20 years just because of SW-6 & SW-7 alone. The numbers can be reduced substantially. All we have to do is adopt another model. Bonita Springs is at $8,720 total cost, Sarasota County is around $8,000 and Port St. Lucie is $5,889 vs $17,000 in Cape Coral plus hookup and so fourth. Port St. Lucie payment schedule for sewer and water is approximately $46 a month for 10 years and it’s interest free.

The $229.5 million is a small portion of the money that has been extracted since 2000. It seems we have thrown the baby out with the bath water.

We must ask ourselves how many businesses will $229.5 million support? Or maybe we should ask how many businesses are being destroyed when we suck $229.5 million from our economy? How many jobs are we losing because of this? If we have disposable income, people spend money on goods and services. If you extract hundreds of millions from our economy the money is not available to be spent on goods and services. Above and beyond everything else it takes consumer spending to support business. What do we do in Cape Coral? We suck huge amounts of expendable income from our economy which in turn destroys our business base. You remember the council told us we need to build the business base. We need to install sewer and water to bring them into the Cape so they can help us pay the taxes. It appears we are destroying those same businesses because of the same sewer and water projects that were supposed to bring them in here.

John Sullivan

Cape Coral Minutemen