Steve Stanek discusses in this podcast with Tom Steward about the issue of taxpayers around the country seeing taxes raised for public golf courses. One in particular created in the mid-eighties in Red Wing, Minnesota.
The golf course was originally believed to cost the taxpayers nothing and possibly even turning a profit along with being beneficial to not only community appeal, but putting them ahead of the curve at the time with the growing popularity of the game. Yet, today the local property tax payers have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars financing the course.
To their credit Steward cites that the city has been transparent with the options, fiscal realities, and documents regarding the state of the course provided on their website. The community wide discussion shows support of some current subsidies in particular community pools, however this does not include the funding of a golf course in the red. The problem not seen in the projected growth for today is that there would be “too many golf courses, not enough golfers.”
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