Shooting range not best use of taxes

To the editor:

Has Penny Nixon lost it? Mr. Nixon has always been a proponent of small government, lean budgets and low taxes. But he is pushing for the city of Wasilla to go into competition with Grouse Ridge and others in the private sector by building a shooting range on city property next to the Multi-use Sports Complex.

Since when is building and operating a shooting range a basic function of city government?

Since when has government intrusion into the private sector become a cause Mr. Nixon champions?

How can the city afford to do this when sales tax revenues are down?

People are penciling this thing out. I hope they have sharper pencils than the bunch that penciled out the MUSC and told us that it would be a money-maker. The sports complex cost city taxpayers over $725,000 this last year alone, and has yet to have a break-even year.

If the shooting range pencils out, why should the city take this business opportunity away from entrepreneurs? And if it doesn’t look like it is going to make money, is this what the residents of the city consider their top priority, what they really want and need the most?

Why has this project been fast-tracked? Why hasn’t there been better public notice and more public hearings about it?

Wasilla water and sewer customers have been forced to accept incredible rate increases so revenues will cover expenses. Will the fees that the city charges users of the shooting range cover its expenses, or will the shooting range, like the MUSC, be another millstone around the necks of city taxpayers forever?

This issue will be coming before the Wasilla City Planning Commission. Its next meeting will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall. Citizens are allowed 5 minutes to speak. What is your idea of small, basic government? Do you think the city of Wasilla should build and operate a shooting range? Do you think that next door to the MUSC an appropriation location and the best place? Are you willing to support a shooting range with sales tax revenues? If you can’t attend the meeting, you can contact the members of the commission by emailing: jholycross@ci.wasilla.ak.us

Maybe Mr. Nixon is just somebody who wants tax money spent only on his hobbies, after all.

Anne Kilkenny

Wasilla