City Of Spokane Is Not A Profit Making Venture Yet

If Gregg Yost couldn’t find a private purchaser for his bicycle business at Riverfront Park, what makes the Spokane Park Board think buying it with public funds is wise?

Wise or not, the Park Board decided to spend $35,000 acquiring the operation from Yost. The City Council can’t stop the deal, but four of its members had the sense this week to send the matter back for reconsideration.

Yost says it’s a lucrative enterprise and a great opportunity for the city which wouldn’t have to pay itself the 15 percent cut it charges to a private operator.

That’s what’s wrong with the purchase. Despite the rhetoric you sometimes hear to the contrary, a city shouldn’t operate like a business. Namely it shouldn’t try to make a profit, especially not when using taxpayers’ money and giving itself legal advantages to compete against private-sector businesses.

Maybe this calls for a show of hands

Rep. Tom Campbell, D-Spanaway, is one of numerous state lawmakers pushing for tougher anti-crime legislation. He wants more crooks to spend more time behind bars. He doesn’t care how much it costs, and, he says, “neither do the taxpayers.”

Hmmm. Which taxpayers are those? Surely not the ones who voted for Initiative 601.

State drives a hard bargain

Thanks to state officials’ interference, the city of Spokane has to pay another $2,600 for 16 police cars and two pickups it is buying.

The reasoning (to apply that term loosely) goes something like this:

The state Procurement Office has a contract with Empire Ford in Spokane to buy vehicles at a special low price. Under the contract, Empire may sell to other government entities at the same price only if those governments pay $100 per vehicle in tribute … uh, make that “administration fees,” to the state.

Spokane doesn’t use that office so its deal with Empire was canceled and the city must accept a higher bid.

Someone needs to remind the state Procurement Office that city taxpayers are also state taxpayers, and that the further savings can be spread the better it is for everyone - even if the state can’t extract administration fees.

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