Mt. Ulla broadcast tower just keeps coming back
“Greed is good … greed works …”
Those are the infamous words of Gordon Gekko from the movie “Wall Street.” Greed is never good but Mr. Gekko got it partially right; greed does work. The struggling masses witness this daily; we watched it create the Great Recession as the tax-paying masses bailed out the businesses that assisted it. It continues to work with the proposed broadcast tower in Mt. Ulla. After being denied by various boards and courts for nearly a decade, it has come full circle back to the Rowan County Board of Commissioners.
This Mt. Ulla location was proposed in 2003 and denied by Rowan’s commission in 2005; it was denied again by Rowan’s Zoning Board of Adjusters in 2010; it was denied by Superior Court in 2006, the N.C. Court of Appeals in 2007 and the Supreme Court in 2008. The broadcast company even tried Mooresville but was denied by Iredell’s Board of Adjustors in 2004 and the Mooresville Commission.
All of these courts and boards came to the same consensus repeatedly; so why the do-overs year after year?
Because greed is relentless; it is tireless, and if it doesn’t get the answer it wants, no matter how high the court, it keeps cycling back again, year after year like an entitled child, until it does.
If this tower is finally passed, my personal fear is that a plane will hit this monster or a tornado turn it into a murderous projectile. Planes have hit towers, and towers have fallen. Accidents happen … just ask the insurance companies who bank on them. If a tragedy should happen, I hope every individual who helped in finally getting it passed be held accountable.
Yes, greed does work but it is never “good.” Gordon Gekko was the villain, not the hero.
— Adele Goodman
Mooresville (Rowan County)
A fairy tale about taxes
I know a man who grows pecan trees. He planted them, watered them, fertilized them, pruned them and spayed to keep them healthy. The trees grew, and when they began to produce a crop of pecans, he sold the fruits of his labor. He made a lot of money and prospered with the sale of his pecans. His taxes were great and he along with others who prospered in a similar fashion had to pay a third of all the taxes collected in that kingdom by the king and his court.
One day the king saw and envied this man’s prosperity, and he along with the king’s court decided to tax him more, even though his tax was great but still not enough to satisfy the king’s needs. You see, because of wars and years of spending more than the treasury could afford, the kingdom was broke. Many were unable to find work. Workers were laid off, businesses closed and taxes collected were dwindling. Yet the king and his court refused to stop their unwarranted spending. So, the king said to the people, these pecan growers have too many pecans, and we believe we should tax these fat cats even more; they, too, should pay their fair share. To which the pecan growers said to the king, “How much is enough? How much is our fair share?” Is it not enough that we already pay over one third all of the taxes collected, and as a group we only represent 1 percent of the taxpayers in the kingdom? How is it fair that 1 percent of the tax payers should pay over a third of all the taxes?
Do you think it is really wise to wound or maybe even kill the goose laying the golden eggs?
— Richard Roberts
Kannapolis