Poverty, Bonds and Profits

Three items from the news today:

A long time complaint of anti Red Planners has been that it is being foisted on a relatively poor population. If the survey reported by Today’s Trib is accurate then Duluth has seen an increase in people living in poverty from one in five Duluthians in 2006 to one in four in 2010. For those who pay regressive property tax or whose landlords must raise rents to pay them, the Red Plan burden has become more oppressive.

On NPR there was an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel about why so few municipalities declare bankruptcy. The lesson Duluth should learn from this is that there is little chance of escaping the Red Plan’s debt burden. If the school district did declare bankruptcy I presume the State would have to pay it off with its “full faith and credit.” Before that happened the School Board could pull out Lake County’s four day school week.

And finally on the brighter side there was a story from the Trib’s bygones section. Forty years ago today it was announced that the DECC had finally turned a profit in 1970 having suffered four year’s of annual losses from its opening in 1966. I recall in the 1970’s that the City’s ski hill, Spirit Mountain, also suffered a number of years of losses before finally turning a profit. Perhaps the municipal Great Lakes Acquarium will also someday turn a profit. (Its current losses have recently been reduced a little) Someday, the Red Plan might actually pay out some dividends if students begin re-enrolling into the Duluth Schools from outside Duluth as they did in the days before the Red Plan. Don’t look for that to happen any time soon.

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