Talk about biting the hand that feeds.
Last week, the Osage Beach Board of Aldermen voted 4-2 to kick a local business’ bid to the curb, in favor of a sign company operating out of, in the words of one alderman, “a bungalow in a residential area” in Reno, Nevada.
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. — A plan to replace the faded and worn decorative banners that hang from li…
Government gets its money via coercion. Whether it’s federal income tax, Federal Reserve money-printing that dilutes Americans’ dollars, or a local sales tax, the government says “Gimme” and the people have little choice but to say, “Okay.” Citizens tolerate this kind of behavior because they either lack the numerical majority or political influence to change it, or because they like the services they believe their money has purchased.
But when a local government (in this case, the City of Osage Beach) has a practice of taking money from a local business, the least it can do is give that business some extra consideration when it’s in need of the type of services that business provides.
It would be one thing if local printing company Smart Postal Centers’ bid had come in above the city’s budget for its street-banner project. But such was not the case. That bid was less than half of the city’s project budget… and yet the board still opted to pinch pennies rather than prefer a local business—whose owner, by the way, actually attended last week’s board meeting, and made a case for the quality of his product. The business from Reno had no representative present.
And what is the aim of these new streetlight banners? To portray Osage Beach as a great place to live and work? How does the board’s decision to snub a local business align with that?
This board’s decision is nothing short of hypocrisy. These same elected leaders plead with citizens to preserve the Use Tax (nothing more than a tariff) and they argue local businesses will suffer in its absence.
But lest we cast the whole board in the same light, Aldermen Tom Walker and Phyllis Marose took a stand for the local guy—as is often their practice—and city residents would do well to take note. Those same voters see the strange disparity when the city bends over backwards to incentivize a big development but scorns the little guy when his bid doesn’t hit rock-bottom.
Or, one can look at this issue a different way: cheaper is not always better. Average folks know that: locals who earn their money and have to make tough choices between buying a cheaper product that will likely break or investing in a costlier one that will go the distance.
And Osage Beach isn’t alone. Camden County commissioners twice last year snubbed a local business, Lake Printing, after the 66-year-old company submitted bids for county mailings to citizens. In both cases, Lake Printing’s bid was slightly lower than the competition’s, and company representatives say they addressed all of the county’s concerns. But Commissioners Greg Hasty and Bev Thomas voted against the business in their own county, opting for an out-of-town printer they had used previously.
The owner and the account manager of a printing company that has been operating in Camden Co…
These actions—by the Camden Commission as well as the Osage Beach Aldermen—are confusing for citizens who care about the success of their community, but who watch their elected officials send tax dollars outside the city, county, or even state, when the money could have gone back into the community.
Local elected officials would do well to learn who butters their bread, and throw their local businesses a bone.
