Winter Optimism

What do people think of when they hear “North Dakota”?  That’s easy – cold winter months with seemingly no end.  That’s what my husband thinks of when I ask him to accompany me home for a visit.  Whenever I tell people that I am from North Dakota, their first comment is about the cold, “How did you stand those cold winters?”, “Does it ever get above 50 degrees up there?”.  Yet, why is it that no one ever makes such comments about Minnesota?  Whenever someone brings up Minnesota people say “What beautiful country.  They know how to live up there!”.  So what’s the difference?  Other than a few more trees and lakes, I’d say a lot of it has to do with optimism.  In my winter travels to Minnesota, I have seen an endless lineup of winter festivals and outdoor events.  Sure you have to dress like Nanook of the North, but there is still much beauty and opportunity for fun in the cold winter months.

 

Here is what I propose for North Dakota – let’s make some lemonade out of our cold winter lemons.  Let’s embrace what we have and show the rest of the country that it can be FUN to live in North Dakota, even in the winter.  No more winter hibernations, let’s plan some hockey conventions, ice skating festivals, snowmobiling trips, snow shoeing, and cross country skiing events.  We could get really crazy and build the world’s largest snow fort, or get into the Guinness Book with the largest organized snow ball fight – heck – let’s make it an annual event!  I’ve always wanted to do a snowmobile scavenger or treasure hunt – why not make it in North Dakota and get some press behind it to let the nation know about it?  With a little creativity and inventiveness, maybe we can pull in some tourists and new residents to join in on the fun.

 

Michelle Wedell-Mertz

IDEAS NUMBERED 32-44

32 A Hard Sell Website for Every Single Town no Matter the Size Selling Quality of Life for Potential Residences
This can be everything from free houses, free taxes for 10 years to people who move with kids, this can be some other benefit. The ultimate residence incentives. People are moving to small towns in other parts of the country. Why not North Dakota?

33 A North Dakota “Tourism” Blitz
Ambassador people attend Sports Shows, Outdoors Shows, Gun Shows, State Fairs, Large County Fairs, and hundreds of other venues. The cost of attending a show with lodging for a party of 2 is about $500 for Lodging, $250 for Food and Entertainment, $300 for Travel (Small Travel Van), and $1000 average for booth and distribution materials and $50 amortized over the life of the booth for a competent Display. That’s $2200 per Show. If there were average of 3 shows per month and 2 People working the shows full time @ $35,000 per year each, means a total of $70,000 for salaries and about $80,000 for the other costs mentioned above. The selling of Sportsman’s Nirvana.

That totals $150,000. If those people were giving away free fishing, or hunting licenses or free lodging or some other free thing you can bet they would be generating a level of activity. It wouldn’t take long to get that money back in direct and indirect revenues. If just 50 licenses were given away or raffled off how much activity and what kind of tourism mail or email list would that generate? No One comes alone, that license will always bring another visitor along.

34 The Shrine to Lawrence Welk as an Example
North Dakota has at least a hundred recognizable and famous people to enshrine in small towns of the Dakota Prairie. I won’t list them, but where was Peggy Lee Born (the house)? What about Eric Severide? Each small town that can boast a visit, residence, or birth of a famous person should create a shrine to them. Build it and they will come. Roger Maris and Teddy Roosevelt aren’t enough. Celebrate them all. It builds pride and offers tourists something to remember.

35 Crops That Do Well in Dakota
Winter Squash, Red Beets (Pickled Beets), Chokecherry and Bush Cherry, Dill Pickles, Juneberry. All these are but a few of things which grow better in North Dakota than many places because of it’s hot dry weather. There are products which come from these which can be offered to a wider market. They are under produced.

36 Attraction Guides and Access Cards
Every County, Town and Village that has a Golf Course, City Park, RV Camp, and any other attraction of any kind should be well marked. In the case of RV camps and Golf Courses, sell an access card to allow people to play the course or camp their trailer without extra costs. As a person drives down the highways, attractive brown attractions signs to point visitors to these things.

37 Sales Tax Abatement for Towns under 500 and Companies with sales under $500,000.
Make a loophole for business owners to take advantage of. No sales tax for any small business in any small town. This single incentive might just cause an entrepreneur to relocate there or better for a company to put a store there who might not have otherwise. The amount of money the sales tax division would lose is very small. The benefits are great.

38 The Lilac Town, The Viburnum Town, The Grapevine Town, The Rose Town
Every medium sized town from 500-3000 can get it’s residents to get on board and grow at least one of a selected landscape horticultural species. There are for instance 250 different Lilacs which grow in ND, 80 different Viburnums, 40 different types of Cherries and Plums, 150 different roses, 30 different Grapevine types etc. Make it a community which specializes in ONE species. In Illinois the city of Lombard IL is called the Lilac City. Thousands of Lilacs of all different kinds bloom on streets, in parks and on medians during the lilac festival. I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine that North Dakota cities could do the same thing. It becomes a reason for someone to travel somewhere and see the sights when they are in full glory.

39 Universal Access for Every Navigable Waterway
North Dakota has lots of small streams and rivers without access for canoes, small boats etc. Make every stream, creek, lake no matter where accessible for public use. Only by sharing these precious few assets on a more universal scale can we expect to attract and keep visitors and residences. These access locations should be well marked.

40 Create Houses of Life
North Dakotans teach and train what they know in life skills to those who have not had the breaks in life. Some are inner city kids, some are prisoners just out of jail, some are people down on their luck. Do this as a business. Do this as a ministry. This is about teaching people to survive and prosper. Some of these “customers” will stay and some will be come good citizens as the move back into society. Right now there are few opportunities for troubled kids. This is a faith based initiative.

41 Health Spa
There are warm flowing artesian wells going to waste in ND. I know of several where the water comes out at 80 degrees and runs down the stream. Capture this water, house it, sanded pond with an outlet on the back side. A hot healing spring. Better if it has sulfur smell. People believe in the healing qualities of such “Springs”. It wont take long to field a few testimonials. Cover it in winter. Make it a destination. The Pool of Siloam in ND.

42 Window Dresser
No store window should ever be empty in ND. Always be selling something, the history of the area, Attractions, anything.

A Development Pattern for Farm Village Development

IDEA'S 26-31
There are hundreds of little towns and villages (hamlets) scattered all across Dakota. I am dealing with those of 100 or less. Everyone has written them off. They have no future. No one will ever move there. They will become farmland someday. Good riddance. That’s the attitude in any case.

I’m not convinced. I propose a solution that has potential, doesn’t cost much, and has the possibility of creating a desirable quality of life for people who live there or choose to move there. The attraction in living in these hamlets is the remoteness of them without being totally disconnected from any other people.
There are Texas Towns that have made this work. In France and Germany there are many rural villages which are part town part farm clusters.

They allow a mix of rural and city living in a unique way. I won’t call them by name but if you consult your North Dakota map you will quickly recognize which ones I mean. I am visualizing several as a conglomerate in making these recommendations. Have them in mind? Good. From here on out I’ll call this fictitious town of our new design Hamlet.

First 26
Recognize that hamlet is windswept. The wind blows across the prairie without mercy in winter, spring, summer and fall. Since Hamlet is small in area surrounding it with a robust shelterbelt and filling in the middle with aggressive tree plantings will stop the wind for good. In spring it’ll be a gentle breeze inside when it’s 50 mph outside, when a blizzard roars it’ll be a soft snowfall, when the summers hot dry dusty winds kick up it’ll be pleasantly breezy inside. I have lived in ND inside just such a treed shelter belted conclave. It was always pleasant. Sometimes I hated to leave the protected area when the wind was blowing as it often does in Dakota. This is the first step in improving livability.

Second 27
Create 10-acre farm sites around the Hamlet. They each boast 500 feet frontage that abuts the shelterbelt on the outside and 900 feet deep. Access is by a road cut thru the shelterbelt off a ring road that circles Hamlet along the shelterbelt. This acreage is large enough to have a few horses, or an orchard or grow some vegetables. This will attract hobby farmers who want to live in the country but not too far out. If a hamlet occupies about 100 acres including this new shelterbelt system it will mean roughly 20 of these hobby farm setups. I am assuming that someone prepared to own and “operate” one of these hobby farms will have outside income or savings of their own to do so. They “buy” these farmettes on a contract for deed. There are strings attached. They must maintain the shelterbelt in the front of their property. They must maintain the road in and out. They must occupy the land with a home of some kind or their primary residence must be in the Hamlet. They cannot be an absentee owner. No restrictions on who can buy these, in state or out of state. There is a restriction on how and when it can be sold. No consolidation allowed, no liquidation to a neighboring farmer. You can surrender it but when you took out the contract for deed you agreed to a certain set of restrictions. You also cannot pay it off ahead of time. You can deposit the money and stop the interest but you do not take full legal possession until the contract is complete. This is designed for people who are going to come and live in Hamlet.

There will be other limitations, codes and controls, which will maintain control on what the people buying this property, can and can’t do. We are building community here. If this worked well it would double the population of Hamlet.

Third 28
Any unoccupied house in Hamlet must be offered to a national market if it is not sold in the first year. In fact it might even be good if that home was GIVEN to someone who would move to Hamlet with children. If there are unoccupied lots in Hamlet suitable for building they must first be offered locally and then perhaps GIVEN to people who would move to Hamlet and build a house and live there.
An internet auction site (like EBAY) could be used to market these homes to the highest bidder. The point of this is to attract people to move to Hamlet by offering inexpensive housing. This has been tried other places nationally and with good success. Why not in North Dakota. It only fails if we do not try.

Fourth 29
Aggressive drainage management will be needed. Because flooding often can happen when development of this type is undertaken it is critical to plan surface storage and dispersal of all storm waters, melt and other water management issues. As part of this, one lot or pair of lots in the lowest area topographically of the town (two if needed) to be excavated with a slow slope. If practical a natural grass ditch draining the pond to an outside of town ditch would be best. If that’s not possible bury an underground 10” tile line running to an out of town lower drainage area. Then all storm drainage and any other would be funneled to this retention pond. Best if it were big enough to be ornamental as well. Call it a lake if you want the panache. But in any case create this water interest with an outlet above or underground. Do not drain off the bottom. The best would be if it were 4’ deep at stasis. This makes a nice community skating rink in winter. It could be artificially stocked with fish in summer for little kids and to keep the mosquitoes out. This pattern should be repeated often enough to provide drainage and retention for the huge rainfall events that will come. Water standing on roads makes poor roads.

Fifth 30
Create or provide a service center for Hamlet. This could be a co-op or it could be operated for profit. The vision is like a C-store except with these additions. Groceries could be delivered from an Internet grocery store to the co-op for pick up or later delivery. It would have services like a copy machine, a fax machine, UPS and FED EX shipping points. There could be many other services. I believe that those people who move to Hamlet will need some services to work their business. This service center will evolve into whatever services it needs.

Sixth 31
Each small business will get a free facelift. If there are empty commercial businesses, churches, schools and so forth they will be encouraged to be put into use. Empty schools will be encouraged to become private charter schools. Empty Churches will become part of the city meeting room structure. Roads entering and leaving town will have welcome to and you’re leaving signs professionally made. They will make you feel like you have arrived at a special place.

Finally, in my minds eye, I see a pretty little town surrounded by farmettes, small self-sustaining because those owning them have other incomes. I see a significant population increase. I see a peaceful conclave surrounded by a thick shelterbelt blocking out noise, dust, wind, blizzard, and smells. I see a little school and working churches again. This doesn’t solve all the problems but it makes good sense to solve some.

4 Ideas about water and small towns 22-25

25. Proposed: BUFFER ZONES FOR QUALITY OF LIFE
The capacity for village and settlement eminent domain to capture property around the area for tree planting, ponds, and other public uses.

24. Proposed: MEANS TESTING OF ANY LAW OR REGULATION
All laws and regulations should be considered under the consideration that the ultimate economic development unit is the single individual. In other words the answer to depopulation is More People.
You have to think about that one before it hits you.

23. Proposed: WATER TABLE REGENERATION
A stated purpose to hold as much water on the land as possible. With the weather changes that are underway it will become critical to hold water and create ponds for a quality of life to be maintained.

22. Proposed: CHAMPION THE ENTREPRENEURS People want to believe that people like them have succeeded. Tell the stories of those who have. Make them state heroes. Help North Dakotan’s believe in themselves and not always looking for someone from out of state to save them.

Not Popular but Rational IDEA 21

Proposed: HALFWAY HOUSE FARMS Industrial Correctional Farm as alternative to jails. Some will produce well-corrected people who will stay and become productive. This capacity could be sold to other states who have minimum security risk inmates they would like to meld out. This could also be for young people. This is a jobs initiative.

5 Arts Related Initiatives 16-20

20. Proposed: Local groups sponsor displays and décor into hotels and motels that elucidates the history and nature of the area the guest is staying in. It’s the Museum Lodging initiative. There is enough old stuff in museums and peoples basements to place a diorama in every motel, hotel and restaurant in the state and then some. The state tourism pays for placement. The local artists and curator types get attribution. Some funds would have to be allocated for this. I don’t think it’s expensive.

19 Proposed: Every small town and village and settlement in ND has a park renewal. Goal, keeping and attracting people. Challenge to create a fountain in every town. Quality of life increase. Use artists to create the most interesting and creative fountains. If 200 towns each had a fountain, would that not be a tourist attraction. Fund the cost and the artist. The town provides the space and the water and the upkeep (or the state does it and bills the town).

18. Proposed: Recognize that the real attraction in ND is not the cities. Fargo and Bismarck as nice as they are, don’t hold a candle to world class cities around the world. People come to ND to enjoy the beauty of it’s rural-ness. Design promotion around the outdoors.

17. Proposed: Create a storefront shrine in or near the town every famous person who ever came from ND grew up in. Most of them came from small towns. These storefront museums are very nice. Much of what ends up being shown is period things not necessarily related to the person being honored. Look at how well the Welk think works. We have lots of people who can be honored. President Ronald Reagan’s birthplace home in Tampico IL is just such a place. Simple but a draw. People drive long distances to find this.

16.Proposed: There are about 75 easily identified mythological, historical, archeological and legendary sites in ND which are not commemorated on site or publicized with much notoriety. This could be designed easily and implemented with not a great deal of money.

15 Great Ideas for Re-Forming DAKOTA

PROPOSALS

Below are proposed initiatives which have been presented to people of influence and legislators in the state. Many are controversial, many are hard to swallow. But the fact is, unless the state begins to make some hard decisions North Dakota life is about to get much harder.

GREAT OUTDOOR'S ENHANCEMENT
The number one reason people travel or play in North Dakota is our great and wide Outdoors. Let’s make it better. The number one reason young people will stay is because of the Outdoors. Hard to leave Dakota when there’s such great memories of the old fishing hole, the old camping grounds, or the hunting spot. Let’s make that better too. Three related ideas to the above theme:

GIVE TOURISTS A PLACE TO VISIT
Initiate 3 new county parks in every county in North Dakota (That would equal 162). Best if they were located on a waterway or a water interest manmade or otherwise. Best if they were treed already (an old tree claim for example would be great) avoiding the open prairie park look so many areas have. Best if there were fishing, boating, overnight campgrounds, toilet, running water, and a placard of interest about the area. Each park would have a theme designed by a person with creative ability. Make it an amateur contest open to North Dakotans only. North Dakota has many qualified artists whose ability could be well translated to make these new parks interesting and inviting. Sort of along the theme of trading places, make the budget fixed over and above the cost of the land. Example $50,000 total per park. Maintain it by volunteer groups, as do highway cleanup groups. Boy Scouts could have a part of this project. If the Boy Scout or other outdoor oriented group wanted to and if this park was adjacent to a larger tree claim or “wild” area they could use it for overnight campouts.

Finance it thru long-term bonds paid for by user fees and increased income from visitors. Along that line read on.

MAKE IT EASY FOR THE RECREATIONAL VEHICLE
Create Access and Maps to all the new (and existing) campgrounds and parks like above in and outside of villages and towns. Sell a 48 hour vehicle camping pass to be put in the camper’s window for $12 at every C store (like they do phone cards). A violation (camping without the pass) is a hundred dollar ticket. That’s posted at the campground. There is also a drop box for which a sheriff’s officer has a key. The Rver can pay there.

The C-store keeps 25% of the revenues. They receive a packet of passes. When the clerk sells it he circles a month and day. The pass starts at sundown that day and continues until sundown 48 hours later. At $8 per sale, with 50000 Rv’s per year traveling the state and staying at the public campgrounds these bonds are retired in 20 years. The interest and operating expense for this comes from the fines levied.

PRIMATIVE ACCESS KEEPS PEOPLE COMING BACK
As an added incentive for eco-tourists, hunters, fishermen, bird watchers, tourists, hikers, people that love nature and as another reason for young people to stay in the state, develop a tax abatement and annual payment program for any waterways or bodies of water that crosses any well maintained roadway. The key is it must join the road.

Landowners who want to participate make Application to Fish and Game dept and they make the decision. The agreement is to give full access to an area a minimum of 100 yards wide and 300 yards deep (about 6 acres) to be divided along or either side of the water, or on both sides of the river. Standing water is critical. This is also a waterfowl habitat issue.

There must be a primitive parking area. This land many times is wasted un-tillable land. The landowner gets tax abatement, liability indemnification, and a payment. This is CRP for non-tillable land. Kind of a mini “PLOTS” program for opportunistic locations that have appeal.

Each county, particularly more “urban” is emphasized. Try not to haul coal to Newcaatle.

EDUCATION - Solving the Problem

Education is broken - badly. Money, Effectiveness, Consolidations.

Deconsolidate the elementary school system, particularly in very rural areas:

Stop hauling 7 year old little girls an hour each way to school in a bus.

There is no reason to do so. Education of elementary school children is best done in the fashion of those who are home schooled. They do better, they get personal attention, they can learn essential knowledge and skills, they do it in a safe environment, they will be able to enter High School prepared and balanced. There really is little infrastructure needed for elementary education. It doesn't cost much to do it right.

Make K-6 schools local. This means small form elementary education in towns that may have lost their schools years ago. Even a little town of 100 people might have a school with 15 children and 2 teachers costing less than the institutional system that exists now. Those teachers and people from the community can teach arts, music, real field trips (to fields). Preparing them for High School.

Change the funding strategy back to what it was in North Dakota before the mid 1970's. The money followed the students. This is what vouchers are all about that work so well in other states.

North Dakota used to functionally have a voucher system and it worked well. If schools didn't work well people voted with their feet, took their children and the funding that followed them and moved to a school they would rather patronize. It sometimes was a public school, sometimes a parochial school, sometimes a private school. It can be again. These new form schools may be charter, cottage schools or even just an association of quasi home schoolers. There are plenty of empty buildings to use for this purpose. Some even used to be schools at one time.

Teachers who now teach elementary in public schools would be accountable to the parents of these schools directly. Certification requirements would be modified to meet these goals.

The cost to the state and the school districts would be half of what is spent per student to accomplish the same goals that are being achieved now. Administrative functions would be centralized and much more hands off than they are now. Much of the savings would be facilities and much less of an administrative financial burden.

The courage to do this will mean the ability to rise above the pressures from teachers unions who fear accountability for their poorer teachers, administrators who have engaged in a land grab of consolidation to build their financially rewarding kingdom, school boards who could lose power and other vested interests. If you are wondering why you are getting pressure just follow the money. Educational lobby pressure isn't about the kids, it's about the money. Check it out, be dubious.

The empty buildings you will hear about this as you decentralize elementary schools should be rededicated, refurbished to provide a first class High School system which produces college ready students or well trained 18 year old people ready to take a quality trades job or people ready to go on to advanced training (technical) in the future. Recreate high schools with broad spectrums of opportunity and development that they can contain. Some of those empty buildings might end up as dorms. Distance is always the problem in a depopulating area.

AND, It's ok to bus 13 year old kids. Training for commuting later in life. That's what old buses are for.

In larger towns and cities if they want to keep their central elementary schools as they are, fine. This isn't about them. This is about offering quality elementary education in a safe local environment.

STOP THE INSANITY:STOP BUSING LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS 60 MILES EACH WAY TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY


REST AREA ENTERPRISE ZONES
Privatize the closed rest areas in the state. Maybe all of them. Allow private enterprising entrepreneurs to run them. Throw out the vending. A Mini C Store. Offer the “Franchise" to anyone who has a similar business (like another C Store) within 10 miles first, or a lottery if there is more than one, they get free rent and indemnification from liability, heat, upkeep, they fund the rest (people) themselves. In exchange they keep the bathrooms clean, water running, maps stocked, sell space in an advertising kiosk for local sites and attractions. Mapquest portal. They sell coffee, coco, candy, fruit, sandwiches (pre-packaged), soda and there are two people on site at all times. 24-7-365. They also sell souvenirs, local ND products, Art, Books. A real ND sellathon. Phones and phone cards. Wireless internet access. Think of the people who race across ND on I-94 or up I-29 and never pull off but to get gasoline. Let’s put out the welcome mat. The closed Rest Areas are really tacky.


RAFFEL OFF NORTH DAKOTA OPPROTUNITIES TO VISIT

THE Number ONE reason people visit ND from other states is to enjoy our number ONE asset. OUT OF DOORS.

If a person comes to ND and enjoys themselves you might expect that some might fall in love and stay. In that regard, Getting out of doors visitors to come is an economic development effort.

Provide Legislative incentive to do the following:

At 20 of the major sports shows nationwide (the largest is in Harrisburg PA in Feb) raffle off 2000 each of pheasant and deer licenses (free) to develop a mailing list (and email list). Give away 100 at each show. Of course no one hunts alone. So, if they come, they will bring someone and they will spend money. If 2000 hunters came with just one person for 3 days and spent $500 while in state that's a million dollars. That will more than pay for the cost of going to the shows. To spice it up Dakota could give away 3000 free fishing licenses and 3000 golf passes for any public course to be played only once on the pass. These assets are underused now anyway.

Go to good shows, put up a nice booth, give away maps of all the public access hunting lands in the state, give directories of motels, hotels. Offer a subscription to ND outdoors on line. INVITE THEM TO COME.

Do all the things that will bring in people from all over the USA to enjoy our number one asset. If we did that for just 3 years the result would be several people moving to the state once they've visited, some would start businesses, some might retire, some might even find new opportunities.

North Dakota is one of the best kept secrets in the country, it's time we let people find out what it's all about.


A STEP IN SOLVING THE RURAL DOCTOR SHORTAGE

The reason a Doctor comes is for opportunity. IF ND offers that opportunity and some will come and some will stay.

They contract to receive a free medical education in exchange for 7 years service, They contract to work in the community at a wage of $60,000 the first year and $10,000 increase for every year they work until the last year when they are earning $120,000. This is commensurate with what they would be earning in metro clinics after 7 years if you factor in the following:

They get malpractice insurance paid for by patrons in the local tax base. (they pay anyway)

In case of any litigation ND law mandates a jury of their peers only . That means that Docs judge Docs only. Takes all sensation out of it all. This single action will attract doctors to North Dakota even if nothing else was done.

For small town clinics the first line of defense is not a Doctor but a Physician's Assistant. Most PA's are better trained than doctors of 75 years ago. Set up a program to attract and keep a PA in small towns. They should be the first line of defense in any case.

The administration, billing and equipment required are managed by a community based organization. It operates as a non profit. The people that work there are paid by the local clinic. The Doctor is an employee of the clinic organization. After 10 years he has the option of buying part or all of the operation.

The answer to depopulation is more people!

THE PROBLEM IS TOO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE LEAVING THE STATE,
REVERSE THE TREND.

200,000 children in America are in foster homes and considered un-adoptable, mostly because they aren’t babies any more (average age 9). Create and fund and adoption initiative for population balancing to offset those who are leaving. Use state tax incentives to help people decide to take the step. Make it public. Have a campaign. Since so many young people are leaving ND create a goal of 100,000 of these adoptions. Some of them would stay if they grew up here. It’s a safe option and it costs nothing. It could put our state over 700,000 people in a year. Make the incentive for the underpopulated and declining population counties intense. There may be a few orphans available from the Tsunami catastrophe who might find ND a fine place to live far from the ocean wave.

BASELINE SERVICES FOR CONSOLIDATING COUNTIES

Right now there is a level of fire, administrative, sheriff, and other county services which is in ALL ND counties. As the levels of populations decline (without other reasons why not) in over half the counties in North Dakota, those counties with populations of 3000 or less (right now about 20 of 57 counties) will not be able to support basic services on their tax base. In most cases these counties will be consolidated into other counties. This proposal is to baseline the level of services for response times in Fire and Law enforcement. The Meth Lab problem will accelerate in these counties that become less and less enforced. Random arson on grasslands and vacant buildings will become a greater problem. Unless there is a legislative funded mandate to maintain appropriate levels of first responders these empty counties will become places less and less likely to be inhabited. The purpose is to continue to make North Dakota a place to live.

SALES TAX ABATEMENT AS ECONOMIC INCENTIVE FOR RURAL COUNTIES
THE NET SALES TAX COLLECTIONS FROM RETAIL ESTABLISHMENTS IN COUNTIES WITH POPULATIONS OF 6000 PEOPLE OR FEWER
33 of 53 counties are under 6000 with an average population loss of 15% in the last 10 years) IS MINISCULE IN COMPARISON TO METRO AREA SHOPPING CENTERS. The total population of all of these counties combined is fewer than Cass County. Since they are very sm