Say Anything Blog

An interesting pair of stories ran recently about elected officials of Mandan. The first was about how the Mandan Park Board is trying to come up with uses for the existing community center because it is underutilized. This sounded pretty good. It likely would save the taxpayers money, since we are likely subsidizing the operation of the current center.

Then there was a disturbing story about something called the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association. This group seems to be pushing an idea to build some sort of event center in Mandan. I suspect they are looking to mimic the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp., which is currently seeking to fund its operations on the backs of consumers with an increase of the sales tax in Cass County.

Isn’t it interesting that these groups keep popping up wanting to build their operations and facilities on the backs of hard-working people? Once built, the hard-working people end up subsidizing the operation because the market didn’t demand the facility in the first place.

Residents of Mandan only need to look to Grand Forks to see what happens when local officials and economic development groups get together and decide they want something and don’t want to pay for it themselves. The Alerus Center loses $5.5 million each year just in the operating costs, which ends up being footed by the taxpayer - not to mention the quarter-cent sales tax that services the debt incurred in building the center.

Most Mandan residents realize that they are considerably overtaxed the way it is. They also understand that it is increasingly more difficult to honestly attract business to the city, as shown by the city council recently creating a half-million-dollar revolving fund to bribe businesses to come in.

Without a growing economy gaining revenue in a noninvasive way, elected officials in Mandan or any city, for that matter, must concentrate on the basics - such as maintaining the streets without making every corner some sort of art display.

It’s time for Mandan people to demand more responsibility from their government.