The deal of the century — at least from the perspective of the City of Manteca at this point in time — is in what apparently are the final stages of negotiations.In the end, if all goes according to plan, Manteca will have:uA 500-room destination resort hotel, the largest by far in the Great Central Valley.uA massive indoor water park that would likely impress even the late Budge Brown, the founder of the now defunct Manteca Waterslides who was considered the father of the modern waterpark.u500 more private sector jobs with an annual straight impact in terms of all payroll costs of $20 million.uSome $1.7 million flowing directly into the city’s general fund to support municipal services on an annual basis after the first full year of operation.The deal revolves around two key factors in terms of public money — the investment of $8 million plus in infrastructure and the splitting of room tax that a Great Wolf Resort would generate over a 25-year period.The city is emphasizing the $8 million would have been spent on extending services to south of the 120 Bypass to handle with growth. That’s probably the case but remember the $8 million was fronted by collecting redevelopment agency taxes on existing homes and businesses within the RDA boundaries and not from developers per se.You could make an argument the $8 million should have been funded by all the new home buyers south of the 120 Bypass. It’s a legitimate point but given it’s all been spent and is in the ground makes it not the deal point that should get all of the attention.Instead city leaders should be held accountable on the $1.7 million annual cash flow projected initially from the project that is expected to increase as the years go by as the room tax split shifts to the city’s favor over the course of the 25-year term of the deal and/or the city ups the room tax with 100 percent of the increase going to the city.Even though the room tax Great Wolf will generate is money the city would not generate without a waterpark project so would the sales tax coming from a Dillard’s department store if one happened to build here.The big difference is the city is giving up some of the taxes commercial-style growth would be obligated to pay in order to make the numbers work for a private sector investment in excess of $250 million.Philosophically this creates an issue over what government’s role should be in trying to spur or secure economic development.