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Wednesday, February 04, 2015

SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - JANUARY 3, 2015

WHOA, NELLIE! Just a month ago, Gov. Dalrymple used the best information available to prepare a budget for the 2015-17 biennium. Throw that out the window. A revised state revenue forecast, reflecting lower oil prices, shows revenue dropping $4 billion from the governor’s budget. Yes, bad news, but fortunately available to the Legislature before it authorizes expenditures based on an unachievable budget.
 
THE REAL DRIVER OF RECOVERY “President Barack Obama all but ignored the oil industry in his State of the Union address to Congress .” -- Reuters columnist Jack Kemp contends the shale oil revolution has been a major factor in the nation’s return to growth, employment and prosperity. Kemp believes Obama may have been embarrassed to mention the role of oil and gas in reviving the economy. Since 2008, private industry in ND has achieved a compounded annual growth rate of over 7 percent.
 
FAR TOO CLEVER A state senator from Jamestown has sponsored a bill that would give $20 million to the Dept. of Commerce to be used for grants to communities that incur high costs from development, but do not receive oil impact funds. What a coincidence! Dakota Spirit, an ethanol plant, just began operations near Jamestown, so did Spiritwood Station, a coal-fired generating plant, and construction is about to begin nearby on the $3 billion CHS nitrogen plant.
 
DIVERSITY IS WANING News reporting in ND is becoming homogenized. The Bismarck Tribune carries an increasing number of stories from the Forum News Service. The dailies in Dickinson, Grand Forks, Jamestown and Fargo are Forum papers which use Tribune stories. This sharing between markets may broaden the news in a given city, but the diversity of statewide reporting goes down.
 
NOT A LOUD VOICE “His personality was, of course, very North Dakotan – you know, not too proud of ourselves, but highly intelligent, questioning on issues that were important to the people.” -- A tribute to former Fargo state legislator Donald Clark who died at age 75. Clark was a Woodworth native who became President and Chairman of Mid America Steel in Fargo.
MARILYN HAGERTY She’s an “American Hero Food Critic” with a “trademark no-nonsense Midwestern brevity.” -- GF Herald columnist and food critic 88-year-old Marilyn Hagerty is in the news again. This time the national media is fascinated by her review and comparison of the four McDonald’s restaurants in Grand Forks.
 
IN ALL MODESTY “I’ve had my eyes on Jamestown for a long time, and I’m finally getting here. It will be the best restaurant between Minneapolis and Seattle with the exception of Sabir’s in Valley City.” -- Nam Sabir, a restaurant operator, who was approved for a $220,000 grant loan by the Jamestown City Council.
 
SHE HAD THE LAST LAUGH A 200-pound Minot woman was the victim of fat-shaming while standing in a grocery line. Fat-shaming? I consulted Google on your behalf: fat shaming is the act of poking fun at someone for being overweight. Joey Schleicher, the Minot victim, was particularly distressed that the shamer was unaware that Schleicher had lost 100 pounds after weighing 300 pounds just seven months ago. A marketing firm sympathized with Schleicher’s distress, treated her to a beauty makeover and made her a poster child for National Compliment Day.
 
HIDING ON THE RESERVATION Fathers of two small Fargo children were granted full custody by a judge. The mother of the two children removed them to a South Dakota Indian reservation in violation of the court order and is in a Cass County jail. The tribe is dragging its feet and declining to return the children. The fathers retained attorneys and obtained assistance from the SD Dept. of Social Services, but to no avail. The case illustrates the difficulty of recovering someone from tribal jurisdiction. The fathers have $30,000 of unpaid legal bills.
 
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD Fargo merchants are losing market share in clothing to stores in Minnesota, even the Mall of America. The reason -- Minnesota does not have a sales tax on clothing. Internet businesses are also nibbling away -- some don’t charge sales tax. Montana also exempts clothing from sales tax. State Sen. George Sinner from Fargo has introduced legislation to get rid of ND’s sales tax on clothing.
 
PERCEPTION TRUMPS REALITY Rural Minnesota counties, particularly those bordering the Dakotas and Iowa, have the perception that they receive short shrift in St. Paul. The “L” counties don’t share the values of big-city legislators and feel they come out on the poor end of state spending. Hard facts tell a different story. Seven metro counties generate considerably more tax revenue than the other 80 counties combined. Outstate Minnesotans don’t believe it, but the metro counties provide funding for greater Minnesota, not the reverse.
 
BE CAREFUL “Enjoy at least 10 percent in annual returns.” -- This is the pitch of a Dickinson realtor who is the managing broker for Barons Vista, a $300 million residential and retail project in Dickinson proposed by a Singapore-based investment company. The development includes a 15-story tower to be a “lighthouse for travelers arriving in Dickinson.” Barons Vista does not appear to have financing and is fishing for investors.
 
DAKTOIDS: ND traffic deaths were down in 2014 versus 2013 -- over half of those killed were not wearing a seat belt . . . Grand Forks area employment is anemic. During 2014, employment in Fargo and Bismarck increased over 3 percent, while Grand Forks had a 0.7 percent increase . . . The ND Public Service Commission can’t retain, much less add, pipeline inspectors. The PSC increased the monthly salary to up to $8,000, but received no applications.
 
MORE DAKTOIDS: Over and over again, articles and pictures in the Forum tell the same story. The Twin Cities are making a distinct contribution to the Fargo crime scene -- urban criminals who favor armed robbery, drug crimes and organized shoplifting . . . UND Aerospace Sciences owns 108 airplanes and 9 helicopters.
 

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