It’s a simple matter of a difference of opinion. On the Center City project, Metro Council Republicans think the administration is giving away the farm to attract the Cordish Company to develop a section of downtown near its Fourth Street Live project. Hal Heiner leads this group who believe it’s not a good time to be giving away incentives to developers for downtown.

On the other side, Council Dems support the incentives for Cordish and the Mayor’s plan. They believe Cordish will actually spend some of its own money to develop what’s known as the Water Company block. This land could have been the site for the new arena, had Abramson not become such a strong supporter of the Waterfront site.

A party line vote results in Heiner’s group losing 15-11, so he’s taking his case to the people. Heiner did a Fox41 Point of View segment yesterday arguing his point.  And the public is likely to side with him, just because citizens don’t want any government spending done that’s optional in the shaky economy.

It might be different if it weren’t for all the stalled projects downtown, like Museum Plaza. But all the delays in downtown construction projects give ammunition to Heiner’s argument.

Maybe the Center City project is a good idea, but it’s an idea whose time has not come. They’ll be voting on the funding package Thursday. Heiner wants you to call 3-1-1 and talk to your Councilperson about it.  More on this topic at LEO.