By Mike Thayer
So there's this outfit called the Iowa City Area Development Group (ICAD), that wants to open a collaborative office space where free lancers and/or small businesses pay for memberships.
They want $100,000 from Iowa City taxpayers to help them do that.
The answer should be a flat out "N0."
Giving away hard-earned taxpayer money to what should be a private enterprise endeavor is not a proper role of government.
This is something the free market is good at. This is something a business person, an entreprenuer should be doing. It's called creating an office building. The office building owner charges people to rent office space.
Unremarkably, Mayor Hayek and council members Susan Mims and Michelle Payne are onboard with this improper taking of taxpayer money.
Here's how it's SUPPOSED to work. The city's economic development committee, which just happens to include the people mentioned above, should be contacting business owners and building owners and encouraging the free market development of this collaborative office concept. But taxpayers should NOT be funding it! Putting verbal support for the concept out there in the public eye and promoting Iowa City is as far as government involvement in this should go. THAT my friends, is the proper role of government, having taxpayers subsidize it is NOT.
Never mind that the government has a TERRIBLE record in venture capitalism.
Contact city officials by clicking here: http://www.icgov.org/default/?id=1115
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