Say Anything Blog

Joshua, nice grand slam. The Renaissance Center is a bad plan and also downtown development is important first before anything...Very nice...I will also be voting “no” on May 3rd.

Too often I think these community development projects are more about making money for developers than they are about actually improving the community.

You can’t create interest in leisure time activities (like attending sporting events, etc.) where it does not already exist simply by sinking a whole lot of tax dollars into nice facilities.

Besides, sports are a business.  Even collegic sports (though the dynamics are a bit different with state schools).  They should be run as such and the government should stay out as much as possible.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Joshua,

Is there a state that is experiencing a net loss in population?

Did ND ever really have such?

I’d be interested in any information you have on this subject.

Sounds like the crap that Bush jr. did in Houston. 

JG,

This country is littered with projects like this that have demonstrated no benefit.

Wrong once again JG (what’s new??). ND actually has had a net increase in population over the past couple of years and the days of a net loss seem to be over.

Also, thanks in large part to our Republican governor we had a sizable budget surplus this year. I believe we are only one of three or four states to be in the black this year. Is your state one of those JG?

It’s probably more like the Democrat stronghold state of California. Great fiscal responsibility outta that state. And save your Arnold comments, he inherited a $37 billion deficit.

Shortsighted thinking by folks like Rob, Joshua, and Cam have made North Dakota what it is today--a place for North Dakotans to depart from.

In the 21 states with net population losses from domestic and international migration between 2000 and 2001, natural increase prevented population totals from declining in all but four: Louisiana, Iowa, North Dakota, and West Virginia. West Virginia, which has the country’s oldest median age, was the only state to have more deaths than births (see Figure 11, page 34).

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3761/is_200212/ai_n9157094/pg_8

Interesting.

Two projections of population growth by state to 2025 (both have ND showing a net increase, though ND isn’t about to become Texas or California):

http://www.census.gov/population/projections/state/stpjpop.txt

No, Josh, you’re wrong on several fronts; first, most states are required, by state constitution, to have balanced budgets.  That ND is running a surplus is no big deal since they’re required, by law, to do so.

Of course, a surplus means nothing if it doesn’t translate into meaningful progress for its citizens.  That generally means good schools, low unemployment, wages that outpace inflation---your basic quality of life issues.

How does ND stack up?

The number of elementary school-age children (ages 5 through 13) declined by 381,000 while the number of their high school-age counterparts (ages 14 through 17) increased by 329,000 between 2003 and 2004, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Arizona had the largest numerical increase of children between the ages of 5 and 13, and California had the largest numerical increase of those between ages 14 and 17.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/004083.html

This appears to report an immigrant dependant population growth.

We had a boondoggle like this attack our citizens here in Tallahassee, Fla, about ten years back. 

What happened was that our Congresscritter somehow managed to secure a “matching funds” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to build an “arts” (performing and visual) center.

There were three problems with that.  The city needed to raise sales tax to come up with “funds” to “match” for the arts center.  The second problem was that there are two sizable universities in Tallahassee… FSU and FAMU… and BOTH of them have very nice arts facilities, performing AND galleries.  The third problem was the city had just recently finished building a new civic center. 

The argument FOR the arts center was that it would draw more tourists into Tallahassee, as if families on their way down to Disney were actually going to go 70 miles out of their way to see our “arts center” when the Orlando area has several that are more conveniently located for tourists.

So when a referendum was put on the city ballot at each election, the city kept responding with a resounding “NO!”

However, this was kept up year after year until there was finally an election that was strictly local, in which only city offices were in contention, few voters participated, and the “yes” slipped through on that one :(. 

So now we have an arts center that’s rarely in use, and extra sales tax.

BTW, a Russian ballet company came through here at Christmastime two years back, performing “The Nutcracker”.  They did their (fantastic!) performance in the Civic Center, not the new arts center. 

Go figure.

Joshua,

Yeah, but it ain’t Key West or Hawai’i.

I was surprised to find out that some states have had negative population growth.

Actually, to me ‘Fargodome’ makes me think of that Mad Max movie. Which, if the Fargodome will be anything like the Thunderdome, maybe there will be big crowds after all.

My hometown nearly lost accreditation on it’s high school some years back. It seems they got this great idea to build a huge new sports complex, but the price tag was so high that they had to fire a bunch of the teachers, nearly sinking below the standards set for accreditation.

As Hus said, there are bad projects all across the US.

Seth Williams,

Would the sequel be: “Mad Dakotan II: Beyond the Fargodome?”

~We don’t need another public venue…
~We don’t no more added to the already burdensome tax structure…
~All we want is for the government to leave us alone…

I have to admit that the name “Fargodome” is hilarious.  Sounds like something out of the movie “Fargo.”

Was that movie well liked in North Dakota, BTW?

Seth Williams,

Typical government stupidity.  You see, when the government spends money it doesn’t actually have any incentive - aside from CYA - to spend money rationally.  Its not like they are going to run out of business after all.  Admittedly, every so often a municipality might go belly up, or a government agency might be killed, but even in the latter case its mostly an issue of shuffling an agency under the wing of some larger bureucracy.

Thanks for the data Hus and no thanks to JG for dodging the issue again. What a surprise.

JG you asked for some numbers and you got em.

*In 2001 ND had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2002/feb/wk4/art02.htm

*Currently we are 3rd out of 50 states. http://www.bls.gov/lau/home This is one of the low points in the year due to the slow down during winter, especially in construction and other jobs that aren’t feasible when it’s cold outside. At our low point we have considerably more people working than the liberal strongholds of CA, MA, and NY.

*As far as our schools, we are doing just fine. Our graduation rates are just like our unemployment rates, top notch. We are regulars on the top of the list. Currently I believe we are 2nd in the nation and this study has us at 2nd as well http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_baeo_t2.htm

*Also our standardized test scores are always among the top tier in the nation as well. Top 5 is no big deal around here. We have high expectations when it comes to education.

*As far as quality of life, just ask around to some people that live here.

So now that you have been proven wrong 2 straight posts, time to change the point again. Some things will never change....

“Mad Dakotan II: Beyond the Fargodome?â€?  haha.

Hus-
To tell you the God’s honest truth, I have not seen the movie. Not out of protest or anything like that, I just haven’t seen it. Most people here laugh about the movie and the exxaggerations it made, especially the accents. Overall most Fargoans have a positive review of the movie I would guess.
The Fargodome has actually turned itself into a pretty successful venue in the 15 or so years that it has been around. And now that I think of it, the name does sound kind of silly. They should sell the naming rights.