With the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce hosting its townhall forum on February 11th (see details below) - we would like to get our own pulse of the community when it comes to Bismarck's fiscal policies.
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Public Input Needed At Bismarck Chamber of Commerce Forum
Mayor Mike Seminary has made this tax hike his personal mission, but there are some questions that he and other commissioners must answer.
We hope that you will attend the Chamber's public forum and ask these questions of those supporting higher taxes:
1. Has Bismarck’s growth been “productive growth” or simply “growth at any cost”?
2. Why hasn’t the growth Bismarck has experienced been able to pay for the public costs of the growth?
3. Does the city realize that the need for higher taxes proves that the growth has not paid its own way?
4. Why does the city have a “growth management plan” if it does not keep the public cost of growth below the revenue generated by the growth?
5. Has the city devised a long-term policy to ensure that the costs of growth will not outweigh the benefits of growth if voters approve a tax increase?
6. How will the city change its ways to ensure that the cost of growth does not exceed the benefits of growth in the future?
7. What actions has the city taken to ensure that growth is at worse a revenue-neutral situation?
8. Why should the current residents of Bismarck support growth if the growth is going to cost everybody more in taxes?
9. If generating more revenue from visitors is the solution, why is that not enough with the sales taxes as they are today?
10. How can the city prove that this tax increase will do the job?
