ND legislature is blessed with a surplus in the state budget and access to stimulus money (story from Minot KXnet). Unfortunately, North Dakotans have a way of finding the flaw in the silver lining. Some in the legislature seem offended that the stimulus money is intended for specific things (schools, roads) and some are concerned that spending this money implies a commitment down the road. So you do some repairs to buildings and highways. Now you have better infrastructure. How is better infrastructure a future burden? I guess adding a few lanes in Fargo means in 10 years the city will be asking the legislature for repairs. Technology came up (and I was quick to notice). I suppose if we purchase better infrastructure or laptops for students the schools will expect to maintain these opportunities. Let’s simply not offer opportunities and call it good. How about for once we take a risk and push our advatage? We are losing population – few move in and many escape when the first opportunity presents itself – and I see nothing from the legislature that will reverse this trend. We have more institutions of higher education than we have local students to populate them. You simply do not attract young people by settlng for average or good enough. Why not press our advantage while we still have a few people who care.
The idea that we can replace money in our existing budget with stimulus money verges on the unethical. It is very similar to banks taking money, but then not increasing their willingness to offer loans. The idea of stimulus money is to increase the money circulating in the economy. Pretend you don’t understand if you can find a way to spin the directive, but most should have mastered the intent of the proposed economic tactic by middle school. People who earn money spend it allowing others to earn, etc. You do not increase the amount of money circulating when you replace funding for existing projects with federal money and then put your own money back in your pocket. This is not a save for the future fund, this is a stimulus fund.
