Letter to The Dayton Observer

Dayton is NOT a Credible Government
By: Publius

Local governments are supposed to be a voice of reason in today’s era of big government. Towns are not supposed to take on huge amount of debt or loan themselves money. In the town of Dayton, Iowa, however, this is not the case. Dayton has taken over ownership of the previous privately owned golf course and has pumped hard earned taxpayer money into it. The golf course seems to be a few people in government own personal project. The town has fallen into the mode of tax and spend, and this is a big problem. The government is no longer a credible one that people can trust, but rather a government that people can view as a predator. The town of Dayton has a problem; a problem that will only get worse unless change happens.

The town of Dayton beginning in the summer of last year has funded the local golf course. The course was bought at the price of 170,000 dollars which was the debt of the course at the time, meaning the city bought debt. Of course the many citizens of the city didn’t know the course could have been bought cheaper after foreclosure and that there was another private buyer that wanted to continue the land as a golf course. After the course was bought, the city council feeling improvements would be needed to the clubhouse to keep the course alive made large purchases such as building a deck and buying several major kitchen appliances. The choice was made to buy these things new, instead of possibly buying used items at a cheaper price. The council was advised to shut down the golf course over the winter by an advisory board. The town council however, voted to keep the course open. The golf course and clubhouse hence accrued a loss of 40,000 dollars over the five winter months as a result of this decision. That is a staggering loss of $8,000 per month.

Then in May the council voted to approve a $1.35 increase in property tax. This property tax increase as stated by a town official is almost entirely due to the golf course. The city also is hurting existing businesses by neglecting town roads. The town road maintenance budget is now only one-fourth of what it was last year. There are several pot holes on heavily trafficked roads that lead to prosperous businesses. This undoubtedly has lead in a decline of business to those areas as other places have much better roads. The roads in Dayton are so bad that you have to swerve in several locations to keep from bottoming out in a car. The roads are just the start in the way this government is unfairly impairing private enterprise. The town and taxpayers are directly funding a rival to restaurants and bars. Just recently the town has also borrowed $25,000 from the Light Board to help pay debt on the golf course (they are in charge of the town’s electrical payments, plans, etc.). This after the town’s electrical rates went up 9 percent this year.

A credible government is one that will let a success prosper and succeed and let a failure, fail. The government must allow these things to happen no matter the preference of the government. This means having a zero tolerance/no exception policy when it comes to funding goods that are pure public goods. If an enterprise is succeeding then the government cannot become a predatory state and start to tax the business more for its success to support a failing business. So, if a business is failing the government should not bailout the business and prop them up. This creates mistrust between the government and the people. The people being the lifeblood of the government can take action by voting and electing new leaders or by doing damage with their feet and moving to different communities with a credible government already in place. That is a plus of a having a Federalist system of government.

Another important part within the idea of credible government is that local governments cannot print money to bailout failing businesses. However, if a local government were able to do such a thing through creative methods you could see it causing a large rift in the community. Ultimately a small government being predatory by methods such as taxing its citizens at an extremely high rate will cause damage to that community as it loses its tax base, when they move to a different community.

The town of Dayton in many of its citizen’s eyes is no longer a credible government. The town has decided to prop up a failing business in the golf course due to the government’s preference for the course. The course lost 107,000 dollars in the past year. This is remarkable and substantial lost. Yet, the government continues to prop the golf course up by raising the citizen’s taxes by $1.35 all due to a golf course a majority of the citizens do not use. The tax is even worse on local businesses however. This is because businesses have to pay a higher percent of their properties earnings than homeowners. There are currently approximately 35 in town members out of the total memberships. That means that in a town of over 800 people under a tenth of the town plays the sport of golf, while the entire town pays for the cost of operating a failing business.

The town has become very predatory. It is not only taxing its citizens at the highest rate by $3.00 per $1000 property value in the county, but it is also competing against private businesses. The city is sponsoring events at the golf course’s clubhouse (that also serves as a restaurant) that would otherwise go to other businesses in town such as the two restaurants, one future restaurant, the bar, and the grocery store that also caters events. The government in Dayton is not letting succeeding businesses succeed.

The government has strong connections to the golf course in the town of Dayton. Three of the five council members have golf memberships, as does the mayor and police officer. I am not saying that the government is purposely trying to become a predatory and uncredible government. They may be doing things with the best of intentions, in the name of promoting the town as a strong major little town. To many a golf course in Dayton is viewed like a pro sports franchise. Many in the government feel that the town without a golf course is no longer a relevant to the rest of the area. This however, is not true; they in fact are only hurting the market for good business in Dayton by bailing out the golf course.

As previously stated local governments should not be able to print out money or bail out businesses. The town of Dayton has gotten around this by taking even more money away from prosperous businesses by slashing the road fund by three fourths and borrowing 20,000 dollars from the Light Board. The town in doing this is borrowing money from itself. All of these things are going to lead to a large move with your feet “movement.” Many people already have expressed a desire to leave due to the factors and mistrust of the government.

A few possible solutions for the town of Dayton are to privatize the golf course in some way. The town could go the route of leasing the clubhouse which has been the main reason behind the large losses and the town becoming predatory. This would also still ensure that the government’s preference of having the golf course is also met, while satisfying the people by taking it off the town’s budget and the taxpayers’ property tax. The other option would be to sell the golf course and the clubhouse to the highest bidder; this while being most likely easier due to the ability to convert the course to farmland. The town would get immediate profit from the sale which would allow the town to concentrate on pure public goods such as roads.

The town of Dayton bought a golf course that was in serious debt. The government then decided due to their preferences that it was best for the town to continue ownership of the golf course. However, due to this decision the town’s government has turned into a predatory government that taxes its citizens as extremely high rate and one that supports its failing business over those of prosperous, succeeding businesses. The town of Dayton has a very simple choice in my mind to privatize the golf course in some way. Otherwise the problems will continue to progress.