What Happened
The city of Martinsburg, West Virginia, is looking into whether it can find a sponsor to help pay for electric car-charging stations.
So What?
The incident illustrates how cities are increasingly looking to private sources to fund projects. This “sponsorship” model has become increasingly common as cities face fiscal challenges.
The Backstory
Main Street Martinsburg, which was incorporated in 1992 to revitalize the city’s downtown, recently proposed the installation of two electric car-charging stations in a city lot; the plan was supported by city council members and the Parking Authority.
The project hinged on winning the Governor’s Main Street West Virginia Innovation Award, which would have funded the $20,000 project. The plan ultimately won second place, which awarded $10,000. MTV Solar agreed to kick in $6,000, but the project was still short about $4,000.
Alternative Funding
According to reports, the Martinsburg Parking Authority originally agreed to allocate $4,000 to fund the project, but the decision was tabled; Randy Lewis of Main Street Martinsburg agreed to research alternative funding, such as a sponsor.
The Trend
As Gov1 has covered in recent weeks, cities across the country are looking at alternative funding sources like Martinsburg. In many cases, the funding for infrastructure projects comes with “sponsored by” messaging. That was the case in some of the examples mentioned in a recent EG article, such as:
- Branded Manhole Covers: The city of Cleveland, Ohio, sold sponsored manhole covers branded “KFC” in return for the chain paying for street work.
- Sponsored Police Cruisers: The town of Littleton, MA, started a program back in 2005 in which sponsors pay for leases on town police cruisers, in return for advertising space on the rear bumper of the car. Dunkin’ Donuts and others participated.
- Sponsored Town Parks: Onondaga Lake Park, the self-described “Central Park of Central New York,” has sold branding rights to Wegman’s in return for building and maintaining playgrounds, dog parks, and other components of the facility.
- Swimming Pools: The city council of San Angelo, Texas, agreed to sell the naming rights of the city’s municipal pool, in return for maintenance and upkeep. The rights were sold to a local peanut farmer for $56,000 for an eight-year term.
Additional examples were in this EG article on naming rights.
The most high-profile example involves Google, which agreed to sponsor WiFi in New York’s subways.
Has your municipality sold sponsorships to specific infrastructure projects? If so, we’re eager to hear from you; please contact us at Gov1. We will continue to cover sponsorship issues in coming weeks.