Being a new member of the North Shore community and subscriber to the Cook County News-Herald, I am reserving judgment on the merits of many of the projects being proposed for Cook County and Grand Marais but I am enjoying the vigorous debate of those projects in the pages of the News-Herald.
However, somewhere along the line I must have missed something like how much revenue the 1% tax has actually generated to date and is reasonably expected to generate in the future in this economy. At the risk of sounding cliché, I would hope the county is not “putting the cart before the horse” or “counting its chickens before they hatch.”
We have a federal debt of over $14 trillion and we “had” a state deficit of $5 billion in part because of spending decisions that were overly optimistic about revenue streams that have been adversely effected by factors beyond our control (i.e. our economy, declining property values, and a protracted conflict overseas).
We love Cook County and Grand Marais and there are many good projects being discussed but perhaps they should all be subject to the 1% sales tax “egg” hatching…
David Witte
Plymouth, MN
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