The Journal Star reports:

A group of 30 or so dedicated proponents of Kellar Trail gathered on a dreary Sunday afternoon at West Marietta Avenue and North Prospect Road and ventured onto the rail-less trail, marking the first time an organized group has walked it since the rails-to-trails conversion was finished…. Smiles abounded as cameras clicked and flashed, capturing the excitement of the moment that many of them had been working toward for more than a decade.

What’s missing from this report? The cost.

The cost of this conversion is not disclosed; my guess is the Journal Star didn’t bother to ask. We know the cost of acquisition was $1,250,969, and the estimated cost of conversion as of 2006 was about $6.5 million. That money is expended by the Peoria Park District.

But perhaps the most significant number is the value of the Kellar branch right-of-way: $2,872,500 was its appraised value. The City gave this nearly $3 million right-of-way to the Park District for $1 to make this trail possible. Combine that with the $10 million Sears Block that the City gave to the County to make the proposed museum possible, and we now have nearly $13 million in assets the City has generously donated to two non-essential projects.

That generosity comes with a price. Instead of selling these assets and having the money to use for basic services such as firefighters or police officers, the City Council is instead poised to impose up to a $0.035 per-therm tax on natural gas in order to raise $5,565,500 in revenue. That means that, for all practical purposes, any new utility tax the City imposes will really be a tax to pay for a trail and a museum.

You won’t hear the budget trade-offs characterized in those terms in the press or on the council floor. The new tax will be portrayed as paying for basic services, of course: “It will help us keep firehouses open and police on the streets!” But it’s all a shell game. It could just as accurately be said that the tax is to cover the cost of giving away assets to the County and Park District.