Praise ye Tamarack

The Associated Press offered a story for this past weekend about that great place Tamarack, that big, expensive arts and crafts store along the Turnpike at Beckley. The story told of all the great things Tamarack sells. It did not mention that Tamarack loses $2 million to $3 million a year.

Gov. Joe Manchin has said he wants to turn Tamarack over to the state Department of Commerce. Perhaps that department can operate Tamarack on a break-even basis.

You know, there's a reason that most people who work for the state are not out making money running retail stores. They don’t have the management training in retail to identify a viable market, raise capital, acquire a location, select merchandise, market that merchandise and earn a profit.

For some reason, people in government sometimes think they know so much, they can use the bottomless well of taxpayer money to finance all sorts of moneymaking schemes. And sometimes, those schemes work.

That seems to be the case especially in West Virginia, where home-grown private capital is scarce. If local people don't have the money or inclination to go into the retail business, then the state should.

The best thing for Tamarack would be to lease it or sell it to a private concern that knows the market that Tamarack aims to satisfy. Private investors are in better position to know what works and what can make money. They are free of the restrictions placed on state government in procurement and sales. They are relatively free of political pressures. And if they lose money, it does not take away from more vital functions of state government.

Before one or two people start telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about and that I shouldn't pick on Tamarack, let's just say this basic principle holds true for a lot of things. Government should be running hospitals unless it's an absolute necessity. And government shouldn't build expensive gift shops unless it's an absolute necessity.

UPDATE: Let me rephrase what I just said, only in less formal langauge.

Gaston Caperton got the idea that West Virginia needed a showcase for its artisans and craftsmen. He didn't want to invest his own millions in it. He must not have been able to find any private investment, or else he didn't want to look for it. So he dipped into the Turnpike toll revenues to build it. He got to cut the ribbon and take the credit and then walk away from it when his term ended. Now he's far away and he doesn't have to worry about Tamarack. He bears no responsibiltiy and probably no remorse for the drain Tamarack has put on the turnpike authority. He probably won't drive the Turnpike anytime in the next few years, so what does he care, you know? He won't have to drive the road that could have been better had that oversized souvenier shop not been built.

And that's the way government investment in what should be private enterprise works. Anyone writing a textbook on politicians who think they are entrepreneurs is welcome to ponder this one.