Saturday, May 26, 2007

Golf by Government

The city of Kalamazoo recently turned down a request by a private developer to sell its city-run Eastern Hills golf course. This is despite the fact that the offer was twice its assessed value.

An earlier article describes Eastern Hills as the city's "most productive" course. Overall,

City-owned Eastern Hills, Milham Park and Red Arrow golf courses are expected to generate about $1.45 million in revenue this year, compared to about $1.43 million in expenses.

They're basically breaking even. Presumably, the other two are losing money.

Of course, city-owned courses don't have to pay income and property taxes like privately owned courses.

Can anyone explain why government should be running golf courses? The commission's vote demonstrates once again that government doesn't use money as responsibly as private property owners.

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