Go to hell, KSTP

Let me begin by saying the way things have been done on the Iron Range hasn’t always been perfect. It’s an area with a unique governance structure because of our mining tax system and that system has taken time to make more efficient. There’s been plenty to criticize and I’ve been one of the critics. But Twin Cities TV station KSTP took a cheap shot last night that mischaracterized Ironworld, the Iron Range and the very nature of the our how tax dollars are spent up here. Worse, they did it to make fun of the Iron Range, to raise their well-groomed eyebrows into the camera for the entertainment of their conservative suburban viewers.

Watch KSTP’s story from last night’s newscast.

The first problem with the story was the one I pointed out last week when I heard they were working on this. KSTP makes it sound like the state taxpayers are paying for Ironworld when that is just not true. Mining taxes pay for Ironworld and these taxes are paid by the mining companies in lieu of local property taxes. These funds are funneled through a state agency, Iron Range Resources, but the money belongs to the region, not the state. So the people who have the right to be angry about Ironworld are the residents of Iron Range cities, and most of them recognize the unique role Ironworld plays in preserving and sharing Iron Range culture.

Ironworld was a state-run attraction for decades. It struggled to find a purpose and spent a lot of money — a LOT — trying to figure out what it would and could be. There were many failures and lessons learned. Now Ironworld is run by a nonprofit and received a large endowment to begin the process of making Ironworld a stand-alone nonprofit attraction that is fiscally solvent.

But none of that came through in the story. Instead, Reporter Bob sticks a microphone into the face of strangers in the Twin Cities and asks them if they’ve “heard of Ironworld.” They hadn’t of course, but then again not many Iron Rangers have “heard” of KSTP. Then he sticks the microphone into the face of Iron Rangers and the worst he could find was someone who hadn’t been to Ironworld in “a couple years.” When’s the last time you paid to go to the zoo, Bob?

KSTP deserves to be called out on this one. This story was an elaborate joke played on the hard working people of the Iron Range. We deserve to have culture and art, too. This is funded by local mining tax dollars, not the income tax dollars of people from Edina.

And screw you, too, Phil Krinkie and the “taxpayers” league. You’ll look the other way in 2003 and now as officials funnel tens and hundreds of millions of actual state and federal taxpayer dollars into a real boondoggle, Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Energy Project, but then call our mining museum paid for by our Iron Range money a boondoggle.

I am quite prepared for the commenters who will ape the figures cited in the story about how “expensive” Ironworld is per visitor. But Ironworld is more than a “theme park.” It documents our history and culture and it’s finally operating in the black. You want to close it down? The money that funds it belongs to the people of the Iron Range, legally defined as residents of the taconite tax relief area. When they say to shut it down, we should. But they’re renewing their commitment to a new Ironworld that will be self-sustaining.

Go to hell, KSTP. You’re entitled to ask hard questions, but you’re not allowed to demean our people and history.

UPDATE: Thanks to MNSpeak and Minnesota Public Radio for links and commentary.

Comments

  1. You’re allowed to ask hard questions

    They didn’t even do that. This is pretty shameful.

  2. Anonymous says

    Why does anyone care? KSTP viewers probably aren’t bright enough to have heard of the Iron Range.

    And Iron World was a boondoggle. It was supposed to attract tourists, not be a local cultural center. Its just nice that it serves some useful purpose.

  3. Thanks for bringing this to light.

  4. Museums and cultural centers do not get a blank check because they serve some sort of divine public good.

    This clearly do not even serve it’s original purpose, which is to attract people.

    spend a couple million developing an interactive online tour of the museum, $100K a year promoting it and shut the stupid thing down.

    Why don’t people understand when enough is enough?

    With all the whining that goes on in the iron range about lack of sustainable jobs and funding, surely you have a wish list of more important things you can spend YOUR tax money on.

    Give your voters the facts and let them decide, $220 per visitor OR a useful venue that people will actual benefit from.

    I bet they make the right choice.

  5. Good job, Aaron. No one outside of the Taconite Tax Relief Area understands this. Indeed, even those residents inside the TTA often do not understand this. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times it is explained, no one gets it. Taconite taxes = property taxes. It’s ours. It doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.

  6. What an overreaction.
    I didn’t think the story demeaned anybody from the range. What comments in the story did you feel were belittling?
    Maybe the facts weren’t entirely balanced but the story’s text was not in anyway demeaning or even remotely personal or subjective.

  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

  8. The story was a classic “inference hit.” The order in which they set up the story was designed to bring the viewer to a ready-made conclusion: Ironworld is useless, Range history is silly and insignificant, this is “your” money being wasted, and if you don’t believe us, believe this right-wing ex-pol turned lobbyist. Its lack of objectivity and tone is what was demeaning.

    We can argue back and forth about this “$220” figure, but the place is running smoothly (finally) and doing much better. The timing of this was just bizarre. If further changes need to be made, the people and officials of the Iron Range will be the ones to make them.

  9. I don’t live on the Range but I have relatives who do and visit regularly.

    Hard to understand how you can say this thing is running in the black. Tax money is tax money no matter whose pocket it comes out of or which government creation gets to spend it.

    I can’t imagine there aren’t more pressing needs for that money on the Range than a sparsely patronized museum/theme park/attraction.

  10. Anonymous says

    We can argue back and forth about this ‘$220’ figure…

    What do you mean? And at what dollar amount per visitor would you agree is uneconomical?

    Also, have you ever had a course on how governments in the United States work?

  11. Anonymous says

    the money belongs to the region, not the state.

    Citation please….

  12. I was just outside of Hibbing last weekend, and couldn’t help notice the citiots that placed, “private road” signs on a public road to county access of county road 16.

    KSTP is just par for the course in demeaning anything in out-state Minnesota. I live 75 miles West of Minneapolis and any news coverage our area receives includes at least one interview that tries to brand us out-staters as ignorant rubes. This has been proven to me many times over the years.

  13. Starting with the Taconite Amendment during the Elmer Anderson administration, and leading into the changes to taconite tax law trumpeted by the Perpich brothers and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s, our property tax system is a little different on the Range.

    Mines, instead of paying traditional property taxes like most businesses, pay production taxes on the ore they remove. If they had to pay regular property taxes they couldn’t afford to keep the mine going when taconite prices were low or when they were mining larger formations of ore. So this production tax goes into a state coffer, but the understanding is that this is local money paid to the state in lieu of local property taxes. That’s why there’s an Iron Range Resources agency. They distribute the money directly to communities and school districts and, for a portion of the money, distribute it to projects and endeavors designed to reclaim mining land, diversify the economy and preserve Iron Range culture.

    You can learn about the agency at http://www.ironrangeresources.org. Links there explain the funding structure.

    Now, what’s been missed in this exchange of comments is that as a local newspaper editor and writer I’ve criticized the agency and Ironworld for poor spending choices in the past. But the agency, and Ironworld, have been working on past failures and are starting, especially in the case of Ironworld, to get their act together. This is important because Ironworld tells an important story about this place, which is a unique place that literally provided the substance of our nation’s military and development through the 20th century.

    You know, some people have said I’ve overreacted here. Maybe I used saltier language than I normally do, but I don’t regret calling out KSTP on this terrible story.

  14. Although I haven’t lived in the area in quite awhile, my original home is up ta da range. Also, I HAVE been to Ironworld, circa mid-1980s. It’s a unique museum/attraction that details the technical, cultural, and economic aspects of iron/taconite mining in northeastern Minnesota. Plus, there’s more. I enjoyed myself immensely when I was there, and I understand that there’s even more to see now. As an attraction for northeastern Minnesota, I can recommend it highly.

    Aaron, you are dead-on about the IRRRB funding issue, which goes waaaaaay back regarding Ironworld. Where was KSTP then? Could it be that the station is worried about the costs in police, fire, and other services that Minnesotans will have to shell out regarding the upcoming RNC in St. Paul? Oh, wait, Reps are KSTP’s friends, aren’t they?

    Thanks for the story, Aaron. And GOOD JOB! Catch a few walleyes for me up ta Vermillion, eh? 🙂

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.