Letter: SRDC is a waste of public resources

Talk about it

The name of the organization — the Southwest Regional Development Commission — sounds important, but an organization that spends only 3 percent of its budget on projects compared to 97 percent on administrative costs is similar to a bad charity, one which most people would not contribute to.

This organization is having its annual meeting at Key Largo on Lake Shetek, eight miles north of Slayton and one mile east on Valhalla Road, at 4 p.m. this Thursday, preceded by a public hearing on its 2009 budget at 2:30 p.m. I would like to briefly outline concerns I have with this budget.

Proposed total expenditures for 2009 are $1,350,862. Only $40,000 is proposed to be spent on projects, compared to $50,550 in per diems and expenses for committee members. Staff travel is allotted over twice as much as projects at $91,835 for next year. Over five times project allocations, $204,922, is to pay the debt from the failed Prairie Expo project in Worthington, which resulted in a loss of more than $8 million to the taxpayers of Minnesota — with the bulk being paid by the nine counties involved in the joint powers agreement. The biggest line item is reserved for staff salaries and fringe benefits at $929,341, or nearly 69 percent of the total budget.

I encourage the public to join me in attendance at the 2:30 p.m. public meeting Thursday at Key Largo to speak out against this waste of taxpayers’ resources.

Tags: opinion, srdc, southwest, regional, development, commission