Gunstock and how ideology ruins everything it touches

[easyrider16]

If you're not familiar, a bunch of right-wing nuts got on the government board responsible for regulating Gunstock, a government-owned mountain in NH. The nuts tried to implement some ridiculous policies ostensibly on the grounds that government couldn't be trusted to run a private business. The senior managers for Gunstock all resigned in protest. After much public outcry, they were just reinstated. From The Storm skiing journal:

Despite clear shows of public support for Day and his team – hundreds of locals attended boisterous commission meetings to demand Ness and Strang resign – it’s clear that a portion of the Belknap County Delegation is unhappy with the outcome of this whole ordeal. They will keep trying to ruin Gunstock. I don’t understand why. This is a healthy business, run by a competent team, pulling in $18 million per year, $6 million of it pure profit. The ski area currently has more than $7 million in the bank, and returns 1.75 percent of its income to Belknap County – which owns the resort – each year. In 2021, that equaled $375,000.

I have so far taken an actions-based approach to this story, examining what happened while declining to explore the political backdrop that has driven this clownish sequence of events. But the story of Gunstock’s takeover is a case study in idealogues clumsily applying a generalized Government Sucks philosophy in a realm where it is neither appropriate nor productive

Government is not always the enemy. Sometimes government works well. A government-run business that makes $6 mil per year in profit is doing a pretty damn good job, and conservatives should get the F out of the way instead of trying to apply their ideology to everything.

[deadheadskier]

Yep. Bunch of free state secessionist losers almost ruined the place

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[Fancypants]

Were the $6 million in profits returned to the tax payers in the form of tax free dividend/direct payment?

[easyrider16]

Were the $6 million in profits returned to the tax payers in the form of tax free dividend/direct payment?

Not sure why this is relevant to this discussion? In any case, Gunstock does pay a percentage back to the county that owns it. I suppose the county could require all the profits be paid to taxpayers, but what for? It's not using taxpayer money to fund operations. It's a business that generates its own revenue and pays its own bills. Like any business, I think we should leave it to those who are running it to determine how best to allocate profits, whether that be to infrastructure or expanding services or savings for down years.

[deadheadskier]

The $6M is cash on hand being held for capital improvements. It's the result of sound management by a team a bunch of extremist ideologue politicians wanted to get rid of. Thankfully they failed. There is nothing in the contract stating all profits get returned to the taxpayers.