True North

Today, the SC Times issued a non-correction correction on the status of the Heritage Nature Center. The Times originally got a few facts wrong, then compounded the problem with an editorial based on those wrong facts. Here's how the Times issued their correction without admitting their guilt:

Despite canceling summer programs and moving a staff member to another position, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said Friday that the grounds of Heritage Park Nature Center are open to the public.

While the public hours of operation for the building at the park have ended, it is still available for use, Kleis said.

Rumors have swirled since the city announced last month that the nature center's programs were canceled. The programs had declining participation and the city cut them to help deal with budget constraints.

Those rumors have swirled because of an editorial in the Times that contained some inaccuracies. That's led to people making all kinds of assumptions.

for instance, a gentleman asked Mayor Kleis why St. Cloud was selling the land out from underneath the Nature Center. Mayor Kleis said that that wasn't happening, that it had never been discussed as a possibility.

The cuts will save the city more than $300,000 in the next two years. The people affected by the program cancellations have been able to sign up for similar programs run by St. Cloud State University, he said.

The total expected savings will be $320,000 over the next 2 years, with the city saving $135,000 this year, $185,000 next year. That's the figures that Mayor Kleis gave during yesterday's Listening Week Wrap-Up.

During the summer, the building was open to the public for six hours on Saturdays. It no longer has those hours, but it still can be used for special events, Kleis said.

I just returned from attending Mayor Kleis's townhall meeting at the Nature Center. While it was a very informal meeting, alot of information was provided to the half dozen of us that attended. One thing that Mayor Kleis said was that there would likely be a fee to use the Nature Center building if a private group wanted to use the facility but that there wouldn't be a fee charged to the school district or SCSU.

The other thing that's noteworthy about closing this is that Mayor Kleis said that, in addition to saving the city $135,000 this year and $185,000 in 2009, the money saved will strengthen other Park and Rec programs that have alot higher attendance. The lesson to be learned is that St. Cloud's budgeting saved taxpayers money while strengthening vital programs.

That's the benefit of fiscal discipline. It's proof positive that prioritization works.

Of course, the Times article wouldn't be complete without a few whiners complaining that they were fiscally responsible. Here's the best example of hysterics:

scabc123 wrote:

What the City does not share with you is that they already had 86 children registered for summer programs that they had to call to tell them it was cancelled. What the City does not disclose either is that the employee had to take a cut in pay. What the City does not tell you either is that full time employee was told she would need to take a cut in hours after one year to a three quarter time position. The employee was the City Naturalist.

My first reaction to that comment was "Why was the city employing a City Naturalist?" My second reaction was to ask why the city's taxpayers were paying $135,000 this year for 86 children in a summer program? That's a cost of $1,569 per child.

Fortunately, sane people eventually prevailed:

commongal wrote:

St. Cloud has lots of day camps. I send my kids to SCSUs camp and it is far better than the city offered. I'm glad they are going to be working with the city. The boys and girls club has programs, YMCA, 4H, community education and I know of a ton of other St. Cloud programs. I think the city made the right decision.

What I found interesting was that Mayor Kleis called surrounding communities to see if they'd cut their Park and Rec budgets. He was told that St. Cloud was the only city in the Greater St. Cloud area that has a Park and Rec Department, that Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, etc., run their programs through their school district or community education budgets.

Finally, it's worth pointing out that this is the expected liberal reaction after a duplicate program is eliminated or cut. They can't imagine how the government could cut THEIR program. They can't imagine why taxpayers demand that programs be justified yearly rather than just increasing the budget each year.

That explains why liberals often don't think twice about increasing taxes. That's the price of never cutting wasteful programs.

One last lesson learned from this is that boisterous minorities can make it sound like there's alot of opposition to prioritizing spending when the reality is that a majority of taxpayers are thankful that politicians protect citizens' pocketbooks first.

Comments welcome at LFR.