Should Knoxvillians have qualms about accepting federal and state largesse for projects that smack of pork-barrel politics?

That question has been largely academic up to now. But it's coming front and center as legislation is being shaped both in Congress and the state Legislature that would pump $50 million or more into downtown Knoxville, primarily to support development of the World's Fair Park.

Most of this money is expected to be included in a $103 billion refueling of the Intermodel Surface Transportation Efficiency (call it Ice Tea) Act that the House Transportation Committee is scheduled to approve next week. About $40 million would go for building garages with 3,400 parking spaces on the World's Fair Park's perimeter to support development within. Another $10 million is earmarked for a rail-trolley system to link the park and a still-to-be-determined convention center site with the Old City and the waterfront.

Prospects for early enactment of this very full pot of tea are clouded by the fact that House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other top Republican leaders insist it would bust the balanced budget deal that Congress approved with a poker face in July. But the chairman of the Transportation Committee, Rep. Bud Shuster (R, Pa.), knows how to pave the way for his highway bills by including special projects for every Congressional district in the land. And if the bill comes to a vote in the full House, it will almost certainly pass. (The Senate is another matter.)

Rep. Jimmy Duncan, who was instrumental in getting Knoxville a full cup, appears squeamish as if he were caught in the middle of the controversy surrounding the bill at the moment. The usually accessible and forthcoming Duncan hasn't been returning Metro Pulse's phone calls over the past several days. But he's been on record in the past as believing that it's just a matter of time until the funding is forthcoming. The garage money is vital to the plans of developer Earl Worsham and associates for raising the balance of the $125 million proposed for an entertainment and shopping complex that could be crucial to downtown revitalization in general and the viability of a proposed new convention center in particular.

At the same time, State Sen. Ben Atchley believes prospects are favorable for state legislative action that would provide the 20 percent (equals $10 million) in local matching funds required to get the federal grant. The state's contribution wouldn't take the form of a grant. Rather, an Atchley-sponsored bill would divert sales tax revenues generated by Worhsam's entertainment complex from the state treasury and dedicate these funds instead to financing downtown public-sector improvements, which could include the convention center.

Sports authorities in Memphis and Nashville are already entitled to such sales tax dedication. Indeed, it served as the take-off point for financing a new stadium for the Tennessee Oilers. From his influential minority leader's post, Atchley believes he can get a comparable entitlement for Knoxville's Public Building Authority, which is due to build and oversee the operation of the garages and the convention center. He's looking to Sen. Bud Gilbert, probably the best legal mind in the legislature, to craft a definition of "new revenues from the World's Fair Park complex on which the sales tax could be dedicated without impacting existing revenues."

An Anaheim-based consultant to the city of Knoxville has estimated the total sales tax take from Worsham, et al's completed Tivoli proposal at $8.9 million annually. But this leaves it to fine line drawers like Gilbert to define how much of the take reflects "new spending" on which the state wouldn't have otherwise collected 6 percent. Since every $1 gleaned for debt service can support up to $15 in bonds issued, if Gilbert can draw the line deftly enough—and if Tivoli comes to fruition and flourishes—this revenue stream could go a long way toward financing the convention center itself in addition to the garages.

It also appears to obviate the need for close to $10 million in city funding presumed when Tivoli was first proposed last fall. The biggest part of this money was supposed to cover the estimated $6 million cost of relocating a KUB substation that clutters the World's Fair Park at present. Mayor Victor Ashe hasn't exactly been quick on the uptake about coming up with this money. So, in a spark of garage design inspiration, the latest plans call for encasing the KUB substation in the base of a multi-level garage.

It will be interesting to see how many pillars of conservatism in Knoxville side with Congressional budget balancers opposed to Shuster's Ice Tea bill. Similarly, with the state hurting for revenue for funding everything from higher education to maintenance of state parks, will local concern for the state's financial well-being produce an outcry against any diversion of sales tax receipts?

We think not, and rightly so. Since everybody else is getting theirs (Memphis has already collected $40 million in Ice Tea money for garages), we'd better get ours while the getting is good. And we are fortunate to have such well-positioned legislators as Jimmy Duncan and Ben Atchley seeing to it that we do.

—Joe Sullivan