Oro Valley Mayor Satish Hiremath leads his merry band of stooges – Vice-Mayor Lou Water, and Council members Joe Hornat, and Mary Snider into a bunker….
The Town Of Oro Valley Is Still In The Golf Business
Regardless of what Satish Hiremath, Joe Hornat, Mary Snider and Lou Waters want you to think, the Town does still own three golf courses. Based on their rhetoric one would assume that the golf courses magically disappeared and we were blessed with a turn-key community center. The truth is that the El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Club purchased by the Town of Oro Valley is losing more money than projected and with that continued trend, those losses will far exceed the revenue from the 25% sales tax increase implemented by the Town in March 2015. A visit to the so-called community center will prove that it is far from turn-key.
Specific to the golf operations, in the first month (July), Troon Management reported a 40% revenue shortfall. The $98,781 total revenue collected was $65,825 less than the budgeted $165,607. Keep in mind that the $65,825 shortfall is on top of the $259,252 they planned to lose. Therefore, the net effect is that over $325,000 was lost in just the first month of operations.
At the September 2nd Council meeting, the news was not any prettier for August. Troon projected revenues of $165,833 and only collected $99,478 with a shortfall of $66,255. Like July, the total losses were approximately $325,000. I recognize that golf play is lower during the hot summer months, but Troon’s projections reflect that. There is no reason to believe that comparable shortfalls will not continue throughout 2015-16 and the Town cannot afford to sustain the losses.
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