The Democrat editorial that appeared earlier this month titled "School-tax vote's message: We'll control our facilities," provides an excellent opportunity to clear up some misconceptions the public may have about the transportation sales tax.

In 1987, the City of Tallahassee and Leon County forged an agreement to provide improved parks and recreation services to citizens within the city limits as well as those in the unincorporated areas of the county. Many things, however, have changed since those original negotiations.

In the first year of the agreement, the county's allocation for parks and recreation services was $300,000: six years later, the bill was well over $1 million and snowballing.

This agreement obligates the county for an inordinately long period of time and does not provide an avenue for meaningful county input. In fact, the agreement prohibits the county from giving any advice to the city on the direction of the parks and recreation programs in the unincorporated area of the county. It also provides no termination clause, and it simply relegates the county to paying a mounting annual bill without regard to the county's financial resources and without any mechanism to consider the need to continue the services or evaluate the services being provided.

In addition to this agreement, the county operates various passive parks. More than $600,000 was spent on this program in the current budget year. The county, therefore, committed almost $1.9 million to provide parks and recreation services to the residents of Leon County in 1994-95. Using the city's formula to determine the county's annual payment under the agreement, the county allocation will exceed $26 million in the year 2008, the year that the agreement expires.

The Board of County Commissioners has long been committed to providing adequate parks and recreation services to Leon County citizens. However, it is incumbent that the board consider some alternatives that will ensure equity, good sense and foresight.