It's Only Money

The Great Lakes Aquarium gets another 100Gs and there is notably little outrage. Well, Duluth's apathy factor seems to increase with every hair-brained decision by the Council to throw more money into bottomless pits.

The GLA has a dubious history of disclosure and transparency. They have been close lipped about certain facts and figures such as whose actual decision was it to refuse the $1 Million settlement offered during the lawsuit against the contractors? Will we ever get an answer to that question? If not, why not? Whose facility is this anyway?

The next thing we will see is the implementation of the taxing plan to build the next "public facility", the DECC expansion. Why are we sinking $70 Million into another facility when we are struggling to figure out how to pay for the last one and the one before that and the one before that? The DECC already receives over $1 Million every year in tax subsidies and now they want more to "invest" in a marginally larger hockey rink. The argument is and always has been, if we build it, they will come. That is, we will be able to attract bigger acts, bigger games, have more than one big event at the same time, etc.

Maybe we should take the $1 Million annual subsidy away and say, if you can make it on your own and make this facility a net contributor in tax dollars, you can have this sum to "invest" in what better be another net contributor. We have the GLA and it exists for what reason? What tangible benefit does it provide the community that we sink hundreds of thousands of tax dollars into it every year? How does it benefit the businesses that are collecting and paying the taxes that fund it? Does Grizzlies benefit from it? Does Moldeez benefit from it? They are paying for it among many others.

We are being held hostage to the notion that if we pay more, we get more. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If those businesses currently paying the tourism taxes were allowed to place that three hundred thousand dollars into a loan or grant fund, imagine the good they could achieve. Place that money into an interest bearing account and once a year, open it up for application for loans and grants available only to those businesses who currently collect and pay the tax.

Better yet, instead of increasing the current tax to pay for another misguided venture, require those now receiving the tax dollars to stand on their own. We would have more than enough to cover the new rink. Unfortunately, that flies in the face of socialism and Duluth is a socialist City. Take from the producers and give to the non-productive.

The DFL has never strayed from the policy of spend and tax, then spend more and tax more. The promises to eliminate or reduce taxes once the projects are done are nothing more than lies to get you, the taxpayer, dumbed-down long enough to get their pork then bury it behind the scenes forever. It's just more of the same. It's Only Money.