April 10, 2010
Saturday

When Walmart showed interest in "invading" Ketchikan there was much concern and discussion. As in most small towns, the fear came mostly from small business owners who had invested their lives and quite possibly their homes and 80 hour work weeks into making their businesses successful. The fear of unfair competition was at the crux of the controversy. Walmart paid a fair market value for the property, pays property tax & charges sales tax. Walmart invested THEIR money. However, OceansAlaska uses tax payer's money, public funding, to invest in their mega-tourist-atraction. The government "gives" OceansAlaska 28 prime acres for the government subsidized cost of $1 (ONE) US dollar!

OceansAlaska publishes multi-page high gloss color brochures that private UN-subsidized businesses can not afford. OceansAlaska has a state of the art government subsidized website, a flashy government subsidized up-town office with government subsidized staff.

The local government has a direct link from the KGB home page website to OceansAlaska. OceansAlaska is and will be directly competing with dozens of existing and future private enterprise, un- government subsidized businesses.

Questions you may ask: Is this fair? Is it right? Is it legal? Is it how I want my tax dollars spent? Can I sign a petition? The answer to this last question is yes.

Email me ( holston at kpunet.net ) and I'll send you a petition for you and your friends to sign. This petition has been drafted by a representative group of business women & men who have a grave concern about UN-fair government sponsored competition in our free enterprise community. You may also consider contacting your local, state and federal representatives. If you are concerned, they need to know about how you want them to spend public funds.

Rob Holston
Ketchikan, AK

Received April 10, 2010 - Published April 10, 2010

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