The annual county budget tells the rest of the story behind the 1 percent tax and the community center controversy. One percent tax was created to fix or replace our aging infrastructure including the Grand Marais pool and the community center, and the voters voted yes.
In the county budget is $25,000 to replace heaters at the community center ice rink.
The furnaces along with the community center and outside amenities should be rehabbed with 1 percent tax dollars but because there are no safeguards in place to prevent abuse the county board will force Cook County landowners to finance and pay through property taxes for the furnaces and slowly rehab the building for the next 20 years when one percent tax should have left us a building relatively maintenancefree, paid mostly by tourist tax dollars.
This is similar to the misinformation campaign led by Commissioner Sue Hakes and the steering committee that included, “The 1 percent legislation will not allow us to fund the rehab of the Grand Marais pool as a stand alone building.”
The county board, Auditor Braidy Powers and County Attorney Tim Scannell all failed to correct the misinformation.
It took Representative David Dill two separate public statements on WTIP to correct the misinformation although it did not stop their pre-arranged agenda. Unless Reps. Dill, Tom Bakk, the Minnesota Legislature, the attorney general or the governor steps in to police the county board, landowners will be forced to pay for things we voted one percent tax to pay for.
Why any landowner would vote for any incumbent in Minnesota is far beyond me. Questioning candidate Heidi Doo-Kirk about the community center and other one percent projects, she claimed we still need a community center to accommodate 300- plus people.
Good grief Charlie Brown, haven’t you been paying attention?
Tod Sylvester
Grand Marais
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