Support for sales tax fund might be waning
The candidates for six city council seats on the June 13 ballot indicated support for retaining Minot’s MAGIC Fund during the Minot Daily News/Grand Hotel candidate forum last Wednesday.
Or, more accurately, they acknowleged the need for economic development in Minot.
“I am not really fond of spending public money for private business,” incumbent candidate Stephan Podrygula said. “But I came to the realization early on in my service on the council that that’s the way the game works. I don’t think we can unilaterally disarm. If other communities are offering incentives, we need to do that.”
Incumbent candidate Lisa Olson expressed a similar view.
Candidate Shannon Straight, also already on the council, said this: “I believe we need the MAGIC Fund. I believe we need to grow our economy.” However, he added, “We need to do a better job.”
None of the candidates expressed the kind of zeal for the MAGIC Fund that former councils have defended even when company after company took its money only to close up shop within a few years. True, there have been lasting success stories, such as Minot Milling.
Even though the MAGIC Fund would not exist without the blessing of voters, the fund and how it is used has had vocal detractors since day one. With Minot’s intermodal facility now in financial trouble, it will be interesting to see how the $1.2 million grant received by that company is characterized in hindsight.
At the forum, incumbent candidate Dave Shomento made an interesting comment, perhaps a prophetic one. He said economic development is critical but that the MAGIC Fund may have enough money to coast for a while.
“Right now there is $7 million in there. Last year we put $1.4 million in,” he said. “$7 million dollars will get us a long way. That $1.4 million that we deposited could easily go to paying off the bonds on flood protection.”
That is a suggestion that few people, let alone a sitting council member, would have made publicly in the MAGIC Fund’s heyday.