Osceola County commissioners Monday made the right choice by voting down the purchase of the Starling property for use as a museum of military history. Granted, it was not an easy decision.

The proposal to buy the former Coggin car dealership on West U.S. Highway 192, its subsequent renovation plus two years of subsidies – for a total of about $3.7 million of tourist development tax money – had both positives and negatives.

We agree with Commissioners Michael Harford and Ken Smith that our veterans need to be honored and their sacrifices shown to younger generations. We also agree that the mall space that now houses the Veterans Tribute and Museum is inappropriate.

But on the flip side, as the three other commissioners said, the purchase of the Starling site at a time when tourist development tax revenue is still trending downward would not be a good business decision. While the proposed location for the museum on a busy highway in the main tourist corridor would have been a plus, we don’t believe the number of overnight stays that the new museum of military history would have generated would be worth the investment. In fact, throughout this whole process, we never heard anything definitive – whether from county officials, veterans or their consultants – about how many heads in beds the new museum might generate.

We also agree with Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr., who said it isn’t a good idea to take a piece of commercial property off the tax roll especially at a time when ad valorem tax revenue is continuing to decline.

Perhaps in better economic times with a robust tourist development tax revenue stream, the idea of a new military museum might not have been such a hard sell. It’s just that there are other proposals on the table now for using the lodging tax that promise more return on investment.

But for veterans, all is not lost. Commissioners agreed to continue looking at the need for a new museum with the possibility of building it on county-owned property at Osceola Heritage Park, just west of the Kissimmee Convention & Visitors Bureau office. That idea, which has both good points and bad, needs to be explored.