One of the certainties of life is taxes. The other, of course, is death. The former to be preferable; it’s relatively less painful and can sometimes have good things come from it.
Case in point, there has been this idea, supported by Gov. Mark Dayton, to use tax money for renovating Plaza and Memorial Halls.
Programs like this, codified through bonding bills, are nothing new Û in fact, RCTC was nominated but ultimately excluded from a bill last year. This year, we have another chance to be included. It’s not a given; the amount of funding and the exact list of projects for this year’s bill are still being negotiated, and we don’t know when a final verdict will be reached.
It would be good if we get on the bill. The buildings really do need the work. There is no danger of them falling apart around us, but there are mold problems. And it would be nice to get things squared away before we start having to patch things up Red Green-style (We call dibs on using the duct tape).
It’s also an investment for the future; today’s college students will be the people running the country. A better environment would hopefully be more conducive to teaching and learning.
We’ll find out for sure when the bill gets finalized, but if the lawmakers can scrape together a tax plan to fund the new Vikings stadium, it seems only fair that we should have a similar chance. Why let all the football fans have all the fun?