TOO BIG TO FAIL                                                                          January 16, 2011

Today’s Times Record editorial “Good Leads Way with Hard Choices Needed” which means in essence the failed Fort Smith Civic Center is “too big to fail”.

No mention that city leaders were warned years ago that this is not a destination city and not to spend money we don’t have. Now the paper says it will cost $400,000 to maintain even if it sits empty.

The paper says a third-party operator is not viable…what happened to the proposal to do just that from the local Phoenix Expo Center?  No mention.

Then there’s the proposal to redirect (steal) some street tax money which was solemnly promised for that purpose alone. Never mind that the streets are an absolute embarrassment (e.g. have you driven into that downtown crevice at 5^th & Garrison lately) and the sewers are in serious, serial violation of federal regulations.

Never mind that the city’s elected leaders have known for 10 years that the state turn back taxes to subsidize the white elephant would end in 2010.  Never mind that only a few actually benefit from the Center’s activities. Businesses which depend on taxpayer subsidized endeavors such as the Center are not legitimately viable anyway. Never mind that the Center has always lost at least $600,000 per year.  Never mind that jobless numbers are growing with businesses shutting down or moving.  Never mind the crumbling infrastructure

While the editorial admits that taxpayers are suffering and not in the mood to suffer more, it concludes with “therefore the taxpayers will be smart enough to understand that an extra dime on a $10 lunch is a small price to pay for all the things the Convention Center brings”.  Remember when the city leaders used to say “it’s only a penny”?  Now it’s “only a dime”.

Citizens, this is precisely the kind of thinking which got this country into the rotten, dangerous crisis we are facing today. A viable business will survive without the forced redistribution of taxpayer subsidies which is the foundation of all Collectivism/Socialism/Fascism.  An endeavor which is not viable should be allowed to fail which is a foundation of free enterprise Capitalism.

It is impossible to spend your way out of debt…that can only lead to more debt in the real world.  City Directors Good and Merry have already put their support behind spending our way into more debt, who else will sign on to this insanity?

Never forget, the easiest job in the whole world is spending someone else’s money, i.e. it’s easy to “make hard choices” with other people’s earnings.

~Barbara McCutchen

Fort Smith, AR

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