Is there a relationship between the need for low income housing in Branson and a possible conspiracy to curtail commercial business growth and wage increases in Branson? Well, according to “Grizzly” there just might be.
This week’s column is based on a thread entitled “SLOW DOWN, Take Breath, GROWTH” started by a poster using the screen name “Grizzly,” on the internet site, www.1Branson.Com/forum, with which the Ole Seagull is affiliated. The thread is posted, under the sub-forum entitled “Local Branson Tri-Lakes Area Issues.”
Grizzly writes, “The City of Branson has clearly taken on the new attitude toward growth that was explained and demonstrated recently in the media. Mayor Presley chose to use Mr. Dody’s departure to explain that while under his leadership we experienced massive growth in certain sectors we also fell short in developing lower income housing for employees of the area.”
Interestingly enough, immediately after making that statement Grizzly says, “I AGREE however, that is not the responsibility of the city, or the city administrator. That is a matter for the market, and the market will not be capable of meeting the demand because the family income level is not high enough.”
Incredulously, in the very next sentence Grizzly goes on to state, “For those of you that love to see conspiracy in every action look long and hard at this one folks. The new theory is curtail commercial business growth and give the housing market a chance to catch up. OR at least that is the current rhetoric. What you may really be experiencing is an attempt to curtail wage increases and stifle [the] job market. Listen carefully and you hear how there are not enough employees to go around now, so we need to slow growth. EMPLOYEES of Branson let me interpret please.”
The scariest part of the whole thing is the part where Grizzly says, “EMPLOYEES of Branson let me interpret please.” Let’s hope that the interpretation is better than the one given in this case. How can a reasonable person interpret a possible conspiracy to “curtail commercial business growth” and “an attempt to curtail wage increases and stifle the job market” from a statement reiterating the generally held community belief that there is a need for affordable housing in the Branson area?
How is it a conspiracy “to curtail growth” if anyone who wants to develop a project in Branson is free to do so, providing they comply with the same applicable ordinances and procedures everyone else does and finance and build that project from their own resources, not from the public’s pocket book? To an Ole Seagull the answer is simple, “It isn’t.”
Now, the Ole Seagull knows that there are a lot of folks who believe that it’s the big developers, government financing and intervention through Tax Increment Financing, (TIFs) etc., that “power” Branson’s economic engine. He would respectfully suggest however, that even as a car manufacturer builds a car so too do they build Branson’s economic engine.
What powers the car is gasoline. The gasoline that powers Branson’s economic engine is its workforce. Without an adequate workforce Branson’s economy would move about as far down the road of economic success as a car without gas would move down the High Road.
Is it more reasonable to use government funding, power, resources, and influence to help provide housing for that workforce or to use it for the benefit of a few big developers to create more of the same types of jobs and salaries that don’t permit the majority of those working those jobs to earn enough to raise their families? To an Ole Seagull the answer seems obvious.
