To The Daily: The mayor and Decatur City Council have signed a letter of intent with Bass Pro Shops which should outrage every Decatur taxpayer and business owner.

The city of Decatur calls it economic development. Study of the issue, surprisingly, revealed the proposal to be a scheme, enabling our city leaders to selectively subsidize one private business, forever prejudicing the free market in Decatur, to the exclusion and disadvantage of every existing Decatur business.

In addition to being a corporate welfare scheme using taxpayer money without taxpayer consent, the proposal also prevents every existing Decatur business which might compete with Bass Pro from locating in the development. Bass Pro has diverted taxes from Decatur for years and now the mayor and City Council want to reward Bass Pro with a $40 million payoff to locate in Decatur, diverting taxes generated by Bass Pro into Bass Pro’s pocket.

Independent, think-tank experts have studied the effects of these subsidies to Bass Pro and unanimously declared these payoffs present a “negative sum effect” on communities, meaning they do not create jobs or wealth; they merely displace them. Additionally, there is no requirement to hold Bass Pro accountable for what it claims this intervention will create.

Bass Pro should locate at the interstate based on a free market decision to compete and not one made due to a multimillion-dollar payoff scheme. Let the mayor and City Council acknowledge what Bass Pro already knows: The free market dictates Bass Pro cannot afford to operate this store without the payoff. Why disadvantage every existing Decatur business and use taxpayer money to payoff the Bass Pro portion of the development, more aptly named “Wastewater”?

David Wiley
Wiley Outdoor Sports
Decatur