For my more rustic friends, this playing card con
game
works exactly like the old shell game and is designed to separate the unwary
mark from his money.
Minnesota taxpayers, like the hapless card players,
can’t keep up with the shell game of our tax money. We think we are paying in our hard-earned tax
dollars into the public treasury for the public good, but through accounting
slight-of-hand, the money disappears into the hands of private interests.
These
thoughts were prompted by this article in the Minneapolis Star
Tribune on the newly renovated, but dark, Orchestra Hall. The Orchestra and its musicians have been
locked in a labor dispute for more than a year, and their magnificent home sits
mostly unused.
The Star Tribune notes,
Because the state may grant bonding
money only to political subdivisions like cities and counties, not private
entities, it is accepted practice for cities to take over large nonprofit arts
facilities and lease them back for almost nothing
Through such financial legerdemain
public dollars are converted for private use. My friend Kevin
Watterson has suggested a different shell analogy, “Government as a shell corporation.”Although a private, non-profit corporation, the Minnesota Orchestra is, of course, a valued community asset, improving the quality of life for everyone in the state.
But the same process is repeated for private, for-profit corporations: from the Minnesota Vikings to the St. Paul Saints to any well-connected real estate developer taking advantage of tax increment financing.
By any measure—total dollars, inflation-adjusted, per capita, share of the economy—spending with all layers of government stands at record levels. Yet this record spending has not purchased taxpayers a vibrant economy. If we are going to continue asking the taxpayer for more, we need to provide far greater transparency on where the dollars are going.
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