The May 7 Brainerd Dispatch quoted Representative John Ward that the new $556 million bonding bill “contains funding for…a potential $2 million for area trails. The bonding bill also has a $50 million Business Development Grant Program administered through DEED. Area units of government across the state will be able to apply for grant money for projects.” Ward added, “This bill creates jobs.”
As a voter in the lakes area, an area suffering through a 14 percent unemployment crisis, I wanted to know how it helps us by taking our representative at his word. This is what I learned.
First, he cited a potential $2M for area trails. However, I learned from the DNR that the $4M appropriated will be used only for repair of existing trails and facilities statewide, and not create any new trails here. Therefore, we won’t see any tourist dollars from this expenditure. It’s noteworthy that the bill he introduced for $2.365 million to create much needed new trails in Cuyuna Lakes died in committee.
He said there is $50 million for a Business Development Grant Program administered through DEED. This money is only for eligible communities in greater Minnesota with “complex and costly public infrastructure development projects for industrial development parks and businesses that might not occur without public financial assistance” according to its website. Is anything like that being planned for our county?
This bill doesn’t create private sector, permanent, new jobs in the lakes area, or encourage tourism. Instead, we are paying for more public projects outside of the lakes area. We don’t benefit from that. It appears we will get to pay the tax bill to back the bond, but locally we don’t get a slice of the money pie up front.
Barbara Haney
Brainerd
Comments (20)
Add commentWard at his best, bunch of
Ward at his best, bunch of hot air. Why do people votemfor him?!
Naw, eyball...
The point is not how the money is spent, it is how it is PROCURED. I.e., taxes. Claiming to create jobs that are in reality gov't jobs is disingenuous. (I include any job that is funded by a gov't entity, even if through a sub-contractor).
I don't care what party they belong to, giving money for recreational purposes in the current economy amounts to glorified prostitution. That, BTW, includes stadiums.
Point taken.
I was a little disappointed by her letter. I'm just tired of the "jobs" mantra. It's like the "reach across the aisle" baloney they keep trotting out when election time comes around.
Frankly, I don't want to hear about how hard they work or that they know how to compromise or that they can create jobs using other people's money. Those begin to wear pretty thin when, at the same time, they refuse to admit that they also got us into this mess.
So, yes, I'm going to keep "complaining" as long as they keep asking me to vote for them.
correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will)
I heard an Economist the other day talking about the slow recovery in the recent recession. He said it takes public and private sector jobs to drive a successful economy. During hard times the shift is often to public sector jobs to keep us afloat.
Then I saw a chart that showed fewer public sector jobs than we have had in some time. The Ecomonist said that is the reason the engine is not running as well. The private sector jobs are on the rise but with slash and burn to public sector jobs that is pulling us back from total recovery.
Where did Barbara's 'conservative voter' tag line go? Of course anything Rep. Ward does, as a Democrat is worthless to her. Duh.
In case you haven't noticed
In case you haven't noticed tourism drives a large part of our economy and maintaining trails is one important way to continue attracting visitors. That takes money.
fish is right
we need to maintain anything the ATVers need to enjoy their sport!
vikings stadium
Remember John Ward voted for the vikings stadium for the Wilfs if you look online Zygi is worth 1.3 billion so why are we building him a stadium. Im not voting for John the next time and I think it is time for the people to say if you are going to help us than you are out of office.
As it were, Your Highness,
I was on a cruise around the area with the top down as I went past your ponderosa.
Denton: question
What is the meaning of the points listed under the names?
For King Robert
That is True!
"I heard an Economist the other day"
Are you using a capital "E" on economist because it was THE economist from the left (i.e., Paul Krugman)?
lakelander, RE: Denton, question
The points are a new feature of the commenting system our company is rolling out at all it's properties.
They hope it will allow users to help to improve the quality of story commenting.
You'll be awarded points for good commenting and for helping improve the commenting (voting, flagging spam, et cetera).
If you break the rules, you may lose points. If we have to block your account, you'll lose everything.
Some of this is automated, but it may take a week or two to be fully configured, so don't be surprised if your point total says at zero or some level for awhile.
What do you get for points? Recognition at first, and some future rewards. Stay tuned.
Denton
That sounds like an attempt at censorship gone astray. So a computer will decide if your post is positive or negative based on your vocabulary or just what other criteria? Spelling? Grammar usage? Doesn't sound like a way to encourage discourse.
Just stick to enforcing the rules you already have. I hope I don't start receiving spam via my email address that is passed on to posters as "future rewards."
I will stay tuned to see.
PS: the large amount of points accruing to the most negative posters does not speak well to your process.
ie: FNB's attempting to identify another poster's name and stating that he follows him seems to be highly rewarded.
Lakelander, RE; Denton
I appreciate your concern. I should have been clearer.
The system has an automated part that awards points for commenting and contributing and a human part that will award points based on 'good' commenting and that will take away points for 'bad' behavior.
I did not mention anything about points based on spelling, vocabulary or grammar.
The 'good' commenting that will be awarded points will include: contributing well thought out comments, attempts at keeping other commenters on topic, civility in commenting, general good behavior, etc.
Points will be deducted for comments that are in violation of the Terms of Service (see link at very bottom of each web page) which would include offensive or abusive posts, false or deceptive posts, harassing or bullying posts, etc.
As I stated, "it may take a week or two to be fully configured". This is a work in progress and we will all be learning as we go.
FYI - we would never share email addresses or identities of posters. That would be a violation of trust. The Brainerd Dispatch and Morris Communications greatly value the trust our customers place in us to provide them with accurate news and information and to keep safe any private information they have given us.
Denton: Here's a thought...I'd appreciate your response
Denton,
I appreciate the effort the Dispatch is making to improve the dialogue. I believe that the Open Forum is a great way for neighbors to discuss the issues before they go vote, or go influence others to vote. Quite honestly, we are at critical mass. Spending actions will determine our liberty in the future.
So to that end, I appreciate the effort a lot. However, I'm not sure of the methodology. Wouldn't it be easier to just have everyone use their own name if they wish to opine? If people didn't hide behind usernames, they would probably be more mindful of their comments. And that's a very simple approach. Also, it would make for a much safer environment for everyone because people's names and their words would be attached...look up into the comments above, do you see any comments that don't improve the dialogue, but might be of concern to the original writer?
And because the opinion authors publish their name freely, and most recently their telephone number, shouldn't those on the blog also be held to that same standard?
Just my two cents. Thanks for all you do, and I appreciate the opportunity the Dispatch provides to its local readers.
Barabara, RE: Here's a thought...
Barbara, thank you for this opportunity to talk.
I believe that Open Forum is a great way to foster discussion among the readers in the communities that we cover. I've also seen instances where our Vox Pop and these comments (blog, as you called it) have instigated discussion of matters of importance or contributed items we may not have learned of if we had required those authors to inform everyone who they were.
Would it be easier to require everyone to use their name if they wanted to comment? Perhaps. The system would have to require up front positive verification of who commenters said they are, which would make it less easy. We've used software systems provided by our parent companies, Stauffer Communications and later, Morris Communications - and they have always been set-up for anonymous commenting, allowing for an easy user registration and a fast ability to comment.
Some websites (not part of our company) are trying non-anonymous commenting hoping that it improves the dialogue.
Locally I'm aware of the Morrison County Record in Little Falls using facebook to conduct it's commenting - http://www.mcrecord.com - based on the idea that most people use their real name for their facebook account.
Does that work for them? I haven't heard. I browsed through 5 recent headline articles on their website today and only found one with comments. In my quick observation, it seemed the conversation was civil. You can judge for yourself here: http://mcrecord.com/archives/507329/complaint-results-in-removal-of-penc...
We publish links to our stories on facebook and I have witnessed several instances of offensive language and personal attacks occurring on facebook, some much worse (in my opinion) than I've seen in our website comments. I expect non-anonymous commenting to not eliminate the problem, but there may be a chance it might curtail it a bit.
You're dealing with people, emotions and subjects they may consider personally important. I have attended and watched numerous city council meetings and have witnessed actions that I considered abusive and behavior that others might classify as bullying or harassment.
I will make it a point to mention your concerns and comments the next opportunity I have when speaking to our corporate personnel who direct the audience participation part of our website.