It's often easy to criticize people for promoting inappropriate policies, but the North Dakota Taxpayers' Association also recognizes the need to credit those who support responsible policies and question existing ones. There many legislative leaders doing this for a long time.
Rep. Dosch rightly points out that even though nearly $500 million has been spent to build new facilities on North Dakota's college campuses over the last few years, those same campuses have deferred more than the $100 million required to maintain existing buildings.
Enlightening the public to how campuses constantly demand more construction without maintaining what they already have makes Rep. Dosch the target of those who consider the University System to be their own little empire.
Nothing seems to deter the University System spending addicts from lashing out at him or others with the courage to question its decisions.
"Sen. Tim Flakoll, R-Fargo, said he thinks there would be little Senate support for the projects if the same list had campus names and communities deleted, thereby neutralizing legislators' loyalties to certain schools." Flakoll said, "It lacks vision and inspiration to take us to the next level".
He asked for objective information of how the priorities rankings were created. He said some of the projects are good, but wants to see more projects that would help generate new wealth, business development, and diversify the economy.
Sen. Flakoll is right in this case, the public deserves to know how these lists of demands were created.
It is time to look at the real issues in higher education, which are the ever-rising student loan debt-loads and the marketability of the graduates in North Dakota. Large sprawling campuses won't provide marketable skills to graduates.
Throwing money around to build little empires around the state, a taxpayer's expense, does not address any of the real issues.
DakotaBeacon