According to the Rapid City Journal, the transfer of 30 acres of city property to Cabela's, which was referred to a vote today, has gone through with a 59.6% yes vote.
The final vote total was 6,957 "yes" votes to 4,716 "no" votes.
I had hoped it would pass, but would be a squeaker so that it might be less likely that the city council would feel emboldened to make similar deals in the future.
Maybe the deal the city struck is what it took to bring Cabela's to Rapid City. But I can't escape the suspicion that the deal was too eager and too generous from the start.
We can hope that the controversy and trouble of a special election will give everyone pause in the future. Government should be business-friendly, but govenment still has a responsiblity to be good stewards of the taxpayer's interest.
I also have a hard time believing that Cabela's "business model" couldn't work without a leg up from Rapid City government. I'm very pro-business, but I have to ask myself, "If Cabela's can't be profitable without the help of several million dollars worth of real estate help from the city, does Cabela's really deserve to be in business?"
0 comments:
Post a Comment