I know a lot of people around here remain cynical about the election-eve timing of Gov. Dannel Malloy's announcement that he wanted to create a park out of the old Seaside sanitarium in Waterford.

Sure, the governor was most certainly floating a political lifesaver to then Rep. Betsy Ritter of Waterford, right before she faced voters in her bid for one of eastern Connecticut's Senate seats.

The governor's last-minute Seaside park announcement finally put the state-owned property on a planning trajectory, after years of dithering by the governor, his administration and Ritter and her old colleagues in the legislature.

In the end, Ritter was probably happy to lose the $28,000-a-year Senate seat and instead land a consolation prize, the $125,000-a-year Department on Aging commissionership the governor awarded her after she lost the election.

And now taxpayers are funding the original election-eve park creation program, which has a planning phase with an estimated price tag of $341,580.

I wasn't so happy to see Ritter nab such a big patronage plum for her rejection by voters. But I think the public money budgeted for park planning is probably well spent and long overdue.

It is especially auspicious that the contract letter with the architects who have been hired to do a master plan specifically suggests a review of existing and future market indicators to consider uses such as "residential, commercial, retail and open space."

That is certainly probably not what the Ritter-supporting, not-in-my-backyard Seaside neighbors had in mind when they gathered to cheer Malloy's pre-election park announcement.

I suspect many of them were hoping for more of the status quo - undeveloped park-like property for just the neighbors to use.

But a careful master plan will need to also look at the landmark Cass Gilbert buildings on the site and creative ideas for partnerships to save and rehabilitate them for uses that will benefit the public.

There are lots of good examples of ways in which private development in parks has created interesting synergies, with new taxpaying-development-creating revenue that can build and sustain the public portions of a park.

Seaside is a perfect opportunity to create this kind of self-sustaining park, because of the magnificent setting and historical buildings, which are likely to lure developers, especially in an improving economy.

Unfortunately, here in eastern Connecticut we are seeing some contradictions in the current Malloy park strategy.

On the one hand, the governor, using his big ladle to dip into the deep well of bonding money, found it easy to come up with $341,580 to plan an exciting new waterfront park in Waterford. In the end, it could even become a model Connecticut park that creates revenue instead of costing money to operate.

On the other hand, the governor's proposed budget actually cuts subsidies for the operation of existing parks, a cut that has the Friends of Fort Trumbull State Park in New London howling.

The governor's budget also doesn't fund the estimated $100,000 for a water taxi that would help get the Thames River Heritage Park between New London and Groton off to a start as soon as this summer.

That leaves the governor spending more to create the concept of a new park in Waterford than it would cost to actually begin running an innovative new park on the Thames River, one that is already planned for and largely in place.

That's just another example of how much easier it is to borrow and spend and pay back down the road, as opposed to writing a check today.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct