Do government officials personally invest in these projects?

A group that funds developers of North Dakota farm products is giving money to six projects.

 
 
Fargo’ Downtown Community Partnership Supports “Economic Development” Tax
Friday, 16 May 2008

Why wouldn’t they?  Those downtown businesses are going to get taxpayer dollars.  In other words, they’re going to get something for nothing.  They are going to get your money put directly into their pockets.  Corporate welfare is alive and well in Fargo.

View Article HERE.

Developers of a downtown Grand Forks condo project are asking the City Council’s finance committee for free land and $200,000 in grants today.

Director of urban development Greg Hoover said the sticking point thus far has been the city’s reticence over financial assistance beyond just free land.

The Grand Forks Herald is reporting that Quality One Wireless, in Devils Lake, will be closing.

The Centers of Excellence have come back to the state with their hands out.  According to KXMB, the North Dakota Emergency Commission has endorsed grants to four universities for Centers of Excellence projects.  NDSU, UND, Lake Region State College, and Minot State would split $10 million. 

Thankfully, there was at least one member of the Emergency Commission that went to bat for the taxpayers.

On October 11, the Hoeven Administration sent out a news release to the media which stated that "2,000 new businesses and 25,000 new jobs [have been created] since 2000."  Governor Hoeven is attributing much of that job creation to his economic development programs.  This is evident because he has and will probably again ask the legislature to fund these programs at higher and higher levels. 

Putting these numbers up against an NDSU study about the oil industry in North Dakota and suddenly the Hoeven Administration's job count becomes a bit more confusing.

Sunday's Bismarck Tribune editorial asked an interesting question:  where are the jobs?

When Gov. John Hoeven announced the Centers of Excellence concept in 2002, an express component of the project's mission was to be the creation of well-paying jobs and business opportunities in North Dakota.

Fair enough. How many?

Public-private partnerships have a downside on campuses
MATTHEW VON PINNON Editor
Opinion - 09/23/2007

It’s been a banner week for the presidents of North Dakota’s two largest universities.

It appears imminent that each will get a $100,000 pay raise and a nearly million-dollar new or renovated house to boot.

The two universities’ alumni foundations will pay for the new homes, and as usual, supplement the presidents’ public salaries of $290,000 to $325,000. To what level alumni will supplement the salaries, we don’t know.

Everyone has likely heard or read an economist’s commentary on the efficiency of the economy. Yet, economic efficiency remains one of the least understood concepts. This is particularly troublesome when assertions are made such as, “Policy X may not be efficient, but efficiency shouldn't be the only concern.” Red flags should go up immediately, but alas, this type of statement is generally accepted as not only correct, but actually more nuanced and philosophical than the seemingly superficial efficiency concerns that economists fret about. Typically, the “other concerns” that allegedly trump the concern for economic efficiency are vaguely-defined notions of “equity” and other, similarly high-sounding goals such as “providing stability”. So, given that people have so many different goals, why is economic efficiency a top concern of economists? The question essentially answers itself, but only once it is understood what economic efficiency entails.

According to the Grand Forks Herald, the city government of Michigan, ND, recently received a Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program and a grant from the Nelson County Job Development Authority through the Red River Regional Council for the purpose of acquiring ownership of the town’s only grocery store. Despite the strong efforts of the mayor – he has helped to raise a lot of money in voluntary donations from the community to keep the store open – the city is having trouble finding someone to own or even just operate the grocery store (note: the city is also offering subsidized zero-percent startup loans and free rent to anyone interested). Though surely just about everyone in Michigan wants to keep the store going, the town’s population was estimated in the 2000 Census to be only 345 people and so the economic environment facing prospective owners or operators of the store (e.g., very low salaries for full-time employees and slim profit margins under the rosiest projections) is very dim. But, hopefully, with the extra help from taxpayers across the United States and northeastern North Dakota, Michigan will soon have a grocery store up and running again. Some questions remain, however, such as how long will this solution work and at what cost? These are never easy questions to ask, because the answers may very well be unpleasant, but they need to be asked nonetheless.

There are few economic principles that are fully grasped by the average person. After all, economics is a science that often leads to counterintuitive observations and so it is unsurprising that economic principles are generally not correctly applied. It also happens to be unnecessary for most people to understand much of economics in order to economize successfully and do well for themselves in their day-to-day lives. However, understanding economics becomes significantly more necessary once a community is asked to vote on public policy proposals.

The United State is the richest country on Earth for one reason: capitalism.  Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman said that "history suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom."  In other words, for a people to be free and for a people to be able to choose its representatives, those people must have economic freedom.

On Sunday September 23, Fargo Forum editor Mathew Von Pinnon wrote a column in the paper entitled Public-private partnerships have downside on campuses.  Here is a quote from that letter:

The two universities’ alumni foundations will pay for the new homes, and as usual, supplement the presidents’ public salaries of $290,000 to $325,000. To what level alumni will supplement the salaries, we don’t know.

WIth the unfortunate collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in the Twin Cities, the debate about infrastructure has been renewed.  What happened in Minnesota could also happen to one of the bridges in North Dakota.  The danger to North Dakota's bridges is not only on the major overpasses in Fargo or the bridges that span the Missouri River, but in the small bridges taht have to withstand farm machinery, as well.  The fact is that every bridge in North Dakota is a bridge worth maintaining.    

With the tragedy in the Twin Cities unfolding over the last couple days, North Dakotans have been digging into their own government's activities regarding basic infrastructure and public safety.  A close look at North Dakota's recent past suggests that some in power have been using transportation funds for pork projects under the supposed guise of "economic development."

Imation, an Oakdale, MN manufacturer of floppy disks, has recently announced that they are closing their plant in Wahpeton leaving over 350 people without jobs.  Immediately, talking heads Ed Schultz and Vern Thompson on their show News and Views railed against Imation for their decision to close the plant.  One issue that has particularly irked Schultz and Thompson is the fact that Imation has received $10.5 million in grants, tax breaks, and other incentives from city, state, and federal sources, and now they are taking that money and leaving.  This begs a larger question: why did Imation get the money in the first place?

ND Branded Beef Inc. is one of those companies you can't help but fall in love with. The owners are from North Dakota; they raise cattle in North Dakota; they process their cattle in North Dakota; they sell their products in North Dakota. In fact, they received the first ever Pride of Dakota Retailer of the Year award. Examples such as these are held up as ways that the state can help entrepreneurs develop and grow their businesses in rural North Dakota.

MINOT – If you can’t fulfill an agreement in Minot, apparently it’s no big deal.

Earlier this month, the city council approved a change in terms of an agreement with the Manhattan-based company, InfoTech.

In 2007, InfoTech received $400,000 from the city – half in the form of a grant and the other half in the form of a forgivable loan. The funds came from the Minot Area Growth by Investment and Cooperation (MAGIC) Fund, which is money collected from the city sales tax.

Video Report

This is the fourth item in the series by the North Dakota Policy Council examining the situation.

Jacqueline Dotzenrod is an investigative reporter for the NDPC. She can be reached at (701)640-9847 or Jacqueline@policynd.org.

“It’s going to take some time to decipher what’s in here,” city and county commissioner Doug Schoenert said. “The comprehensive plan, is supposed to be a guideline that can be changed as you go but that guideline, once it’s in place, that plan becomes the guideline only until it gets down to something serious and all of a sudden it becomes the gospel.”

GRAFTON – Despite what appears to be a generous offer, Marvin Windows and Doors in Grafton gives back far less that what it has gotten from the community of Grafton by any measure that makes “cents.”

Grow Grafton is a housing initiative to encourage new construction within the community. It was established in 2007 when Marvin Windows and Doors set aside $500,000 to establish a community growth fund for Grafton. The money from the fund is given to new residents. If you build a new home in town, you receive $20,000 or if you move a house onto an empty lot within the city limits, you are given $10,000.

About $350,000 has been spent from the fund, according to Grafton City Administrator Mylo Einarson.

There is an uncanny correlation between how much Marvin Windows and Doors collects from the city of Grafton in the form of a labor subsidy and how much the city collects in property tax revenue – both about $500,000.

When the multi-million dollar company moved into Grafton about 10 years ago, the company received strong tax benefits as well as a payment from the city of $1,000 per employee, up to 500 employees.

Marvin Windows and Doors, a family-owned company based in Warroad, Minn., built the Grafton facility in 1997. The Grafton factory’s machines and processes are similar to those in Warroad, but everything is in one 256,000 square foot building.

There seems to be a lot of great things about the Cass County half-cent sales tax proposed by the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation.

If you’re a resident of Fargo, you’ve read the stories and have seen the billboards and commercials. The highly-publicized measure will be voted on tomorrow, but before you cast your ballot, realize there is one detail yet to be publicized.

“I don’t think they’ve given people enough examples of how it will be used,” West Fargo Mayor Rich Mattern said. “It’s hard to wrap their arms around it when you don’t know how the money will actually be used. It’s just my opinion, but there’s too many generalities.”