I have voted in favor of every bond issue ever proposed by the city, county or school district. I voted for the T, I voted for the library, I voted for the sales tax to support initiatives for affordable housing and homelessness in 2017, and 25-plus years ago I wrote a guest editorial in support of a second high school and supported that bond issue.

I’m done.

Six million dollars to remodel our public pool to eliminate the lap pool that is used by adults who pay taxes, in favor of a lazy river? I’m a grandma and my grandkids would undoubtedly appreciate the new feature, but $6 million? Just no. Ditch this idea and fix what we have.

Narrowing Ninth Street downtown? No price tag on that yet, but downtown is already struggling to sustain customers, and people are increasingly uncomfortable coming downtown due to safety concerns. Plus, the University of Kansas is constructing a $400 million project to upgrade the football stadium with retail and other venues that it clearly hopes will draw in customers and attendees to watch games and spend money. So, why on earth would we think it would be a good idea to spend taxpayer dollars to make it more difficult for people to get downtown and to access KU’s new projects? Just no.

And the latest: Move City Hall from its prominent location in downtown to a building — the former Sallie Mae facility — that has zero visibility, dismal access, and is currently on the tax rolls but would come off once it is public property. And what would be left? A uniquely designed building that has served as an anchor to the north end of downtown for decades. I read the city believes it could “recoup” some of the cost for the Sallie Mae property by selling or leasing the existing building. If the building needs $12 million in repairs and upgrades for the city to stay, any new user would need that same investment. Any new user would also be expected to either purchase the building or pay rent in addition to the cost of the repairs. That is extraordinarily unlikely. And even if somehow that would work with grants and subsidies for some nonprofit user, then it’s still off the tax rolls. Just no. Fix what you have and make it work.

Past city administrations made investments in infrastructure that facilitated new growth. This one has not, and Plan 2040 goes even further to discourage new growth in favor of infill. Everyone thinks infill is a great idea so long as it happens in someone else’s neighborhood, so actual infill projects get denied. We can’t grow new neighborhoods, we can’t grow via infill, and that combination has landed us in the bottom quartile in the entire country for new housing construction. We then scratch our heads and wonder why housing prices keep skyrocketing. Over the last decade we have gone from averaging 1.5% population growth per year to now less than 1%.

A lazy river, a narrower Ninth Street and a new City Hall are all wants (as well as being bad ideas). Not one of them is a need. The city is just getting ready to ask taxpayers for more money — a 0.05% sales tax — to provide additional support for people experiencing homelessness. If the city had been showing the public that it is exercising fiscal responsibility, I would be campaigning for this issue too. I can’t do that this time. I just can’t support the extra expense when I don’t see the city making realistic efforts to curb spending in so many other areas.

Instead the city should maybe focus on how we can grow our tax base. If we add new people, add new spending, add new properties to our tax rolls, and generate new revenue, that’s the time to fund some wants. Until the city can figure out how to make that happen, it needs to live like the rest of us — within its means.

— Marilyn Heck is a retired Douglas County commercial real estate broker who has worked with companies on office relocations and redevelopments.