Later this week, we will finally learn how to pay for a new sports and entertainment facility in downtown Sacramento.

David Taylor, the prolific developer, has been working for weeks on a menu of funding options that will get its first public airing on Thursday. Taylor was deputized by Mayor Kevin Johnson to determine how much a new arena – a future home for the Kings – would cost and how it could be financed.

The timing couldn't be worse.

Budgets in the city and county of Sacramento are bleeding. City cops could get pink slips, and there will be those who rail at politicians for considering an entertainment venue when public services are getting whacked.

Raising questions about civic priorities is legitimate and healthy.

But in Sacramento, those questions are too often posed by groups driven by self-interest.

Let's face it. In Sacramento, we block things from happening like nobody's business.

Government worker unions, political consultants, environmental groups, anti-tax groups, lawyers and neighborhood organizations are quite adept at screaming about the public's interests while pushing their own.

Even the private sector here is not immune to the proclivities of a government town.

Currently, there is an electrifying movement to allow more access to mobile food trucks in Sacramento.

On a recent Saturday, thousands of people turned out at Fremont Park, lining up for hours, to sample delicious food from skilled foodies on wheels.

But some whiny restaurant owners, afraid of competition from the trucks, oppose them and have been successful at getting the Sacramento City Council to severely restrict them.

That's how we roll in Sacramento.

OK, so now we're faced with a down economy where encouraging jobs and investment is a must for Sacramento.

Will an arena by itself create tons of jobs? No. Are arenas an economic drag when the public sector assumes all the costs and the sports owners collect all the money? Yes.

That's why we can't have one of those deals. It's why you are probably not going to hear talk of a sales tax increase to finance an arena. It's why financing will take some form of hotel or car rental tax, some leveraging of public land, some redevelopment money and some private equity investment to get it done.

If we believe that we can't have an arena at the same time services are being cut, then we'll end up without the services, without the arena and, ultimately, without the Kings.

To suggest that certain priorities cancel out others is simply wrong.

It's not that you don't protect as many police jobs as possible or figure out how to get the homeless into housing or do your best to fund parks services. You do.

But you have to invest in the future, too.

Why should the Sacramento region invest in a downtown arena? To begin with, this is not about the Kings' owners.

This is about building a destination for people who live and visit here.

Downtown arenas promote public safety and investment. They create business opportunities.

A downtown arena would be good for Placer and El Dorado counties because it would create a marketplace for their businesses and their employees other than the Roseville Galleria.

A downtown arena would draw major shows that currently skip Power Balance Pavilion because its loading docks and facilities are not attractive to promoters.

Without an arena for the future, 2 million people in the Sacramento region will be forced to pile in their cars for two-hour drives to the Bay Area to see decent shows.

This effort is not going to be easy, but it will be a worthwhile investment that brings people together, a triumph over special interests that pit people against each other.

We could use that in Sacramento.

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Call The Bee's Marcos Breton, (916) 321-1096.

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