Most people understand the logic behind the City of Washington’s proposal to reinstate a $30 per player participation fee (the amount charged prior to the City Council’s approval of the “kids play free” program) as a way of helping offset some of the costs associated with maintaining the sports facilities instead of increasing the use of tax dollars to pay for such costs.

It’s a proposal the City Council is studying. There’s no doubt the council must find ways to increase revenue to help pay for maintaining the city facilities used by various sports leagues and their players without reducing the number of children playing sports. City officials recognize there is value in having children playing sports instead of engaging in undesirable behavior. The council, no doubt, would like to avoid imposing the $30 per player fee if possible so that some children would not be put in the position of not being able to play sports because of the fee.

That said, reinstating the fee ($30 is a preliminary amount) could be needed to make sure the city’s sports facilities are maintained so many people can use them.

One problem the city faces is that many people who use the city’s recreational facilities are not city residents, therefore, they do not pay city taxes. In effect, city taxpayers are subsidizing the cost for non-city residents to use facilities paid for by city taxpayers. That’s not right.

City Manager Brian Alligood, earlier this week, told the council the issue before it is whether to impose a fee or use tax dollars to pay for maintenance of city recreation facilities, including those used by sports leagues.

Alligood also talked about reactions to the fee proposal.

“Some of the leagues said, ‘We get it. We understand. Our kids are probably OK with that.’ Other leagues said, ‘It’s going to be very difficult for us to do that.’ Again, this is a policy decision for this board, for this council to consider. It’s real simple math. … It’s as easy as saying you’ve got to decrease expenses or you have to increase revenues. But it’s as complicated as figuring that out,” he said. “This is the first step in that complicated step of figuring that out.”

The $30 fee per player that city staff recommends imposing recovers about 17 percent of the costs associated with the leagues using city facilities, Alligood said.

“Right now, you’re paying for all of that out of general tax dollars,” he said.

Hopefully, the council will find a solution that’s more equitable to the city and do little, if any, harm to the sports leagues that provide opportunities to area children.