From Big Oil to Big Ethanol?

MDL reports that Lake County's locally owned ethanol plant, Dakota Ethanol, has signed a "non-binding letter of intent" to merge with Countryside Renewable Energy, Inc., a new Iowa company looking to consolidate ethanol plants into one big company. Dakota Ethanol general manager Scott Mundt (not to be confused with KELO-TV meteorologist and Jay-Trobec wingman Scot Mundt) thinks the merger will be great. The South Dakota Corn Growers think it'll be great.

I'm suspcious. Am I the only person who isn't convinced that bigger is better? Doesn't merging mean that some portion of the money that Dakota Ethanol generates will leave the state for Iowa? I'll be interested to hear what the local investors think of the prospect of this merger. How important is independent ownership to them?

School Board Opts Back In

Talk about fiscal restraint: the Madison Central School Board has decided not to take advantage of the opt-out it won at the polls last year. The Board voted 4-3 last night not to include the $250,000 allowed by the opt-out in its FY2008 budget. Superintendent Frank Palleria says that the tax revenues were higher and expenses lower than expected (we should all be so blessed). Outgoing Board President Kelly Johnson led the majority (including Mark Hawkes, Dennis Hegg, and David Zolnowsky) in voting against budgeting the opt-out funds, saying the projected budget doesn't show an immediate need for the funds. Board member Rod Goeman dissented, saying the real budget crunch is coming in years three and four of the opt-out, which justifies collecting the higher tax revenue from the opt-out now and putting it in reserves. Michelle Tucek and Craig Walker voted with Goeman against the no-opt-out budget proposal.

Now don't go spending your projected tax savings just yet. The Board passed its budget last night, but it has until October 1 to file its final tax levy request with the county auditor. If the fiscal picture or the mood of the Board changes before then, the district can still reverse its decision and ask for part or all of that extra $250,000 for the coming fiscal year.

I've given the board a hard time over its opt-out efforts, due largely to my opposition to our unjust property tax system. Still, after winning the $250,000 opt-out in 2005 (after two failed attempts in 2002), the Board has shown remarkable fiscal restraint. Voters authorized the Board to take an extra $250,000 each year for four years. The Board has every right to take that money and sock it away for a rainy day. Yet the Board has voted, in the absence of a compelling present need, to leave that money in taxpayers' pockets.

This action resembles that taken by the Lake Herman Sanitary District (of which I am a board member) this fiscal year. The sanitary district opted out a few years ago and was collecting an extra $3000 a year just to put in the bank in hopes of saving up for a major sewer project sometime in the future. However, seeing that even that rate of saving would not bring a sewer project to fruition in the foreseeable future, the sanitary district chose not to take opt-out funds this year and limited its tax levy request to it standard operating budget. Both the school board seems to be following the same logic, that government should not try to run a surplus.

Our man Hunter agrees: the Board deserves credit for resisting the temptation that most local governmental entities feel to tax at the maximum rate allowed by law. Now let's see if that fiscal restraint sticks through October.

She Thought She Was Out...

...but they pulled her back in!

The Madison Central School Board has recalled former member Gwen Thomson to fill a vacancy on the board for the coming year. (The Madville Times is recovering from being overlooked by the Board for the position.) As it did when it appointed David Zolnowsky to fill a vacancy, the Board has perhaps wisely gone with experience. The Board is also fortunate to find a former member who is willing to take the heat again.

Contrary to this writer's expectation, Thomson was appointed only for one year rather than the full term. Her seat will be open to any candidates who want to run for the remaining two years of the term. So all of you education advocates out there, let's see some petitions next February! Democracy is a lot more fun with some competition.

Scooter Journal: Less Gas, More Wienies!

I've begun week 2 of my tenure as a math instructor at SDSU's Upward Bound. As a little extra math homework for myself, I've been keeping track of the fuel efficiency of the scooter I'm driving to work (when the weather is good). In four trips up to Brookings and back on the scenic Norwegian Boulevard, the scooter has averaged 91.3 miles per gallon. At an average price of $3.18 per gallon, I'm getting 28.8 miles per dollar. In those four trips (plus some incidental travel), I've saved $23.81 over what I would have spent on gas had I covered those miles in our Ford Focus.

As a symptom of the general American inability to save money, I find these big savings have inclined me to splurge on fancy meals at the gas stations -- a buck one day for two hot dogs, a buck another day for a burger (with fresh pickles and onions -- thank you, Brookings Cenex!). As I wiped the mayo from my chin, I got to thinking: could my gas savings actually help the local economy?

Consider: gasoline has a low profit margin: 12 to 14 cents per gallon, according to this recent NPR story. At current prices, that's 3-4%. Profit margins on food and beverages vary between 30 and 60%. Let's lowball it and suppose those hot dogs earned the station owner 30%, or 30 cents. Had I covered those miles in the Focus, one gas station would have made $1.56 profit margin. The profit margin from my scooter fill-ups is just 51 cents. However, feeling flush with funds from my gas savings, I've also bought a couple dollars worth of food that I wouldn't have bought had I been in the Focus, adding another 60 cents of profit margin. If I were just a little spendier -- if I'd bought four dollar lunches instead of just two, I'd have contributed a total of $1.71 in profit margin to the station owners, more than I would have just buying gas for the Focus.

So what would happen if everyone found a way to buy less gas -- drive scooters and Priuses (Prii?), carpool, walk -- but dedicate some fraction of their savings, maybe 25%, to buying food from their local station owners. We all spend less money, our local station owners have less revenue but more profit margin. Hmmm... it seems the only party suffering in this equation is Big Oil -- boo hoo.

This casual calculation smells of a free lunch -- I welcome better informed economists and businesspeople to tell me what economic concepts and variables I've grossly misinterpreted.

Gorilla Project Doubts... from China!

I'm not fond of speculating about the Gorilla project in Elk Point, but if the project is a big refinery to make liquid fuel out of coal, we may be barking up the wrong tree. The Chinese -- who have a booming population to provide for and thus have not been terribly sensitive to environmental concerns in their push to catch up with the industrialized nations -- are considering halting their coal-to-oil projects, citing expense and water demands, as well as concerns that such plants would produce a net increase in greenhouse gases. Maybe Elk Point and the governor need a dose of ancient Chinese wisdom....

Save Money -- Universalize Health Care!

The backs of my envelopes get no mercy...

I received my Social Security statement in the mail yesterday. In 18 glorious years as a member of the workforce, I've kicked in $3,346 toward Medicare. I paid more than that just last year for a crappy health insurance policy with a $7500 family deductible and a billing office that made a mistake every other time it sent us a notice. My initial reaction: my family would save money and get better coverage if the government let us buy into Medicare.

Now here are some completely speculative Saturday-morning calculations, corrections to which I welcome from better-educated policy wonks:

Consider that, according to an OECD survey I've cited earlier, government spending (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) already makes up 44.7% of health care expenditures. HHS tells me that the Medicaid budget is about 44% that of Medicare. Also note that my employers have matched my contributions to Medicare. So (with lots of rounding to zero decimal places):

1. Total contribution of my employers and me to Medicare (over 18 years): $3,346 x 2 = $6,692
2. Proportional contribution necessary to support Medicaid (18 years): $6,692 x 44% = $2,944
3. Total proportional contribution from my labor to existing gov't health care (18 years): $9,636
4. Contribution per year: $9636 / 18 = $535
   
5. Assuming this contribution represents my share of 45% of US health care expenditures, additional proportional amount my employers and I would have had to contribute over the last 18 years to cover the remaining 55% of US health care expenditures: ($9,636 / 45%) - $9,636 = $11,921
6. Total proportional contribution from my employers and me that would have been necessary to sustain a universal health care program over the past 18 years: $21,557
7. Contribution per year: $21,557 / 18 = $1,197
8. Amount I'm paying per year now for a private family health insurance plan (slightly better than the one we had last year, but still a $7500 family deductible): $2,700
9. Amount my family could save each year if the US switched to universal, single-payer health care: $2700 - $1197 = $1,503 (that's two monthly mortgage payments, a month of groceries, and a couple extra pizzas!).

Now even if my calculations are off by a factor of two, my family would still come out ahead: even if the amount of money coming out of my employers' and my pockets to support universal health care equals the amount that I currently spend on private insurance, we're still saving buckets of money on the big deductible we currently face. (Remember: in addition to nearly $300 a month in premiums to our old insurer, we were still responsible for $12,000 of our maternity, labor, delivery, and nursery care last year.) Oh, Canada! We could go to universal health care and divert those buckets of money into other, more productive economic uses... like investment for college and retirement and job training for all the out-of-work insurance agents.

Tonight's Weather -- Wish You Were Here

And for my far away readers, a brief postcard from the tranquil shores of Lake Herman:

After yesterday's westerly gales and surprise thundershowers, I am pleased to report winds dropping to a mere whisper in the shelterbelt. It's 61 degrees Fahrenheit (that's 16 Celsius in Canada... 16.5 in Newfoundland) here on the south deck. Birds are singing lullabies, frogs looking for love, and skies clear to Venus, Saturn, and all points beyond. Have a blissful evening, everyone.

Madville Times to Madison School Board: Pick Me! Pick Me!

The Madison Central School Board meets Monday night to, among other things, appoint someone to fill an upcoming vacancy. Three seats came open this year, and only two citizens, incumbents Dennis Hegg and Mark Hawkes, filed petitions. The Board thus gets to pick the lucky soul who will serve in the remaining seat for the next three years.

To the Board, I humbly submit myself for consideration. I have spent my career in education, specializing in math and English, the core curriculum areas of the No Child Left Behind tests and the SATs. I have years of experience in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. I'm tech-savvy, which will be a good asset as Madison joins the high-school-wide laptops program this fall. And as Madison's most prolific blogger, I demonstrate the sort of straight talk and openness that the public is clamoring for from its elected (and, in this case, appointed) officials. I'll bet Madison would love to have a board member who would be able to provide the straight dope on what's going on in our school district. Wow -- I could even blog live from board meetings! How cool would that be?!

I know, I know, if I wanted to serve, I should have filed a petition. But back in February when petitions were made available, I had planned to return to Montrose for another year of teaching and coaching. Since then, I've changed course and chosen a new and exciting opportunity, doctoral studies in information systems (ooo -- even more tech savvy), that has opened up right here at DSU in Madison. So heck, I'll even be around town! Put me in, coach -- I'm ready to play!

Let's Hope Gorillas Don't Drink Beer

Oh, and on the subject of energy, biofuels are driving up the cost of beer in Germany. I suppose that could be a good thing -- more ethanol and biodiesel could mean fewer drunk drivers?

What Do You Give a Gorilla Project to Drink?

Twelve million gallons of water -- that's how much water the "Gorilla Project," a mysterious industrial project that may come to Elk Point, would consume (that's assuming a certain paper in Sioux Falls that still advertises smut is onto something in saying elements of the secret project mirror an liquid coal refinery in Illinois).

Whether the Gorilla Project is an coal refinery, an oil refinery, or a Cheerio factory, such numbers about the resource consumption of new industrial facilities are important to keep in mind. Elk Point may get 2000 new jobs, but it will also suck 12 million gallons of water from its aquifer or wells every day. That's 6000 gallons per day per job. For perspective, 12 million gallons a day is 40% of the capacity of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water project (which doesn't serve Elk Point, thank goodness, or it would dash the hopes of upstream communities like Harrisburg, Sioux Falls, and even Madison to use that new water to support population growth). Even the big ethanol plant in Watertown uses "only" two million gallons of water today, and I thought that was alarmingly high.

People need jobs, and the economy needs fuel. But one refinery slurping up 12 million gallons of water a day ought to make clear to us that simply producing more fuel is not the solution to our energy problems. It's bad enough going to war for oil; wars over water will be even worse. Instead of finding more ways to burn up more resources -- crops, topsoil, water -- just to maintain our rates of growth of fuel consumption, we need to face the reality that only conservation will provide a solid basis for our future economy. Small reductions now in how much we drive and buy and burn will allow our kids and grandkids to enjoy a safer, more stable ecnoomy. If we keep consuming, our descendants will find themselves having to make more drastic, disruptive cuts in their lifestyles. I really don't want my grandkids' taps to run dry just because we want more cheap fuel now.

Not the Arts We Were Looking For...

The Madville Times loves live music. We even like to pump up the volume every now and then. But we'd rather not have a thunderous live music event at midnight keeping the entire lake awake. Such was the case last night, as a rather raucous party with a live band thundered its music at the Madison Country Club until at least one a.m.

Madville Times World Headquarters sits one and a quarter crow-flying miles south of the country club. The windows were closed, a movie was playing (The Motorcycle Diaries -- a fun, beautiful, and thoughtful movie, enjoyable even if you aren't a communist revolutionary), and we could still hear the party. We can only imagine how thunderously loud the ruckus must have been to the dozens of families who live around the golf course and on nearby Pelican Point and Territorial Road.

It was obviously loud enough to draw several calls to the Lake County Sheriff's Department. When contacted at 12:20 p.m., the sheriff's dispatcher reported several calls about the noise had already been received. The dispatcher offered an assurance that a deputy would be sent out to the source of the noise. The deupty must have hit some heavy midnight traffic, as the band played on until at least 1:00 a.m.

To put this event in context, we've been talking a lot this week about the arts and the need for more music in our local life. More live music in Madison would be a wonderful improvement to our culture. However, arts should build community. They should express our neighborliness. if someone's going to host an arts event, I'd prefer to be invited to enjoy it rather than to have such an event barge into my living room and interrupt my other chosen entertainment (or my baby's precious slumber).

Such is the ethos followed by the Madville Times. I offer these small contributions to the local political and literary culture to all readers who feel like clicking and commenting. However, I don't plant viruses to reset everyone's homepage to the Madville Times or drive through neighborhoods shouting my latest entries by bullhorn into everyone's homes. Sharing the arts is one thing; forcing your particular arts on unwilling and uninvited listeners (especially after midnight) demonstrates an arrogance and lack of community spirit to be ashamed of.

Comments on the Pifer Opus: What Are We Missing?

MDL has just finished its run of Mr. Gale Pifer's four-part series on the arts in Madison. Pifer ends the series on a hopeful note in Friday's paper, offering a list of various groups, volunteers, and professional artists keeping the arts alive in the community. However, the series' overall message is that that noble corps of cultural crusaders -- Jim Swanson's writing group, middle school art teacher Ginny Freitag, wildlife artist John Green, arts promoter Beth Knuths, artist-author couple Allan and Eve Fisher, and our favorite local artist-entrepreneurs, Michael and Reina Hope -- are fighting a losing battle in the face of waning fiscal support for music and theater from our school district and the community at large.

Of course, the rhetorical structure of Pifer's opus makes sense. He offers a hard-hitting assessment of the problem but constantly intersperses reminders that Madison has a long tradition of great arts programs -- Bill Ireland's legendary high school band (and Jim Glanzer's profound influence on a full generation of middle school hornblowers and drum-pounders), lively theater from both SDSU's Prairie Rep and a community acting company started by Senator Mundt himself, a downtown art gallery with free art lessons for kids. These reminders of past arts achievements work in tandem with Pifer's optimistic ending to tell us that Madison can support a vigorous arts scene. We all just need to be willing to jump in and help.

So why don't we? Why do we accept our duly elected school board's prioritization of football (ten coaches for grades 7-12) over music (from what I read in the paper, one instructor for 6-12 band, one for 6-12 chorus, and one for elementary music)? How did we lose the ambition to stage community theater productions? Why did we let the city's need for more office space crowd out the old Firehouse Gallery without finding a way to ensure the city would help create a new community arts center?

Now I suppose the best supporter of the arts wouldn't sit around and ask these questions; he'd just get up and do make some art. And trust me: in the coming weeks, this artist will be out in the studio making more paintings. But this artist is also a blogger, with a compelling desire to sit around and chew on such questions (and maybe provoke you, loyal readers, to come up with some answers, if not solutions).

A conversation Friday evening with a former student, now just a friend, inclines me to wonder if economics plays role. This friend just moved to Madison and has been struggling to find a decent job. The want ads mostly seek wait staff and bartenders. Gehl has some welding positions that I hear pay $13 an hour, but even that doesn't go much farther than paying the basic bills for a small family. (My roughly $20 an hour barely does that, and I buy 90% of my teacher clothes at Goodwill.) Maybe people just can't afford a night out at a show.

But as far as I know, wages in Madison and South Dakota have never been very high. I'm not sure today's Madisonites are making significantly more or less than our predecessors. I'm not even willing to say wealth is more concentrated. We still have a large laboring and farming class that doesn't have a lot of spare money, but we also have an apparently growing class that can fuel a small housing boom on Lake Madison with some half- and three-quarter-million (do I hear one million?) McMansions. I see no clear indication that the town or county as a whole is poorer and thus less financially able to support the arts than it was in the 1960s or 1980s.

Maybe the regional wealth is relatively the same, but people are having to work harder to get it. Perhaps as we have shifted to the two-income household model, people find themselves having to work more hours just to keep up with their increasing taxes, tech bills (cell phone, wireless Internet, satellite TV -- all monthly budget expenses that hardly existed 20 years ago and haven't been offset by other immediate household savings), and daycare costs (another budget line item that has ballooned compared to previous decades' household budgets). If husband and wife are both out working all day to pay the bills, and if the kids are hustled through school and day care and other activities all day, by suppertime, the family may just want to spend time relaxing together at the homestead instead of running around town to arts events.

That explanation may not cover the issue entirely, either, since we still have hundreds of people regularly finding time to pack the gym for basketball games. Maybe we come back to priorities: in the old days (and I welcome my senior readers to correct any rose-colored glasses viewing of a false past here), maybe folks had time to see a couple games a week and catch a show or even volunteer to perform on stage or do some fundraising for the band.

I don't have a clear answer on this question. But something has clearly changed. Madison used to support more arts activities. It could support a similar number of arts programs now, but somehow the collective will has not formed to make that happen. Is the economy stopping us, or is it something else? Some mysterious demographic shift that has pushed creative types away? An influx of yahoos? Some shift in our education system that has promoted a devaluation of the arts? The answer to that question is the only thing missing from Gale Pifer's otherwise thorough and welcome discussion of the state of the arts in Madison.