Imagine that you sell widgets for $8.
Every morning, there is a long line of customers waiting for your widget store to open. Every day, you sell out of widgets by noon.
But then someone comes along and suggests that you instead sell these widgets for $6.
That someone is former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer.
Schafer is the spokesman for a group seeking to lower the state tax for extracting oil. Instead of the state receiving 11.5 percent it does now, he wants its cut lowered to 9.25 percent.
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Schafer's idea to lower the price of the state's oil arrives simultaneously to when the oil has never been more attractive to the buyers -- oil companies. Records are being set in oil production, so obviously the tax rate isn't a burden.
So, this seems an odd position for a leader of a party that touts a strong allegiance to capitalism.
With the political capital he has from being governor, U.S. secretary of agriculture and being a well-liked guy, Schafer is a wise choice to push this idea. The other finalist apparently was St. Jude, the Catholic patron saint of lost causes.
St. Jude declined the offer because it appears to be an insurmountable task. Schafer basically is asking favors for an industry that is booming. Government often steps in to help businesses when they start or when they're struggling. But when they're flourishing?
I was part of a team of Forum Communications journalists spending considerable time last summer in western North Dakota for a much-acclaimed Running with Oil series. This hardly qualifies me an expert.
But my view of oil was a virgin one, untainted by any past experiences. Among many impressions, two stood out.
1. The roads are a mess. Even more so, they're dangerous.
Many locals warned not to travel on U.S. Highway 85, a two-lane road with a gazillion huge oil trucks and almost as many impatient drivers.
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While oil brought jobs and other riches to the western part of the state, it's also brought problems such as road with potholes that have their own ZIP code. It's the state's responsibility to make things right -- and then some. The No. 1 use of oil extraction money should to repair and widen roads.
2. Virtually everyone also said this: To Oil Patch employers, money is no object. They'll pay whatever it takes to get the job done.
One person put it this way: If a company needs 100 toothpicks and the asking price is $10 per toothpick, they'll pay. Although it's likely an exaggeration, it conveys the reality that this is hardly an industry in duress.
Schafer says his group is a grassroots effort. The root of the initiative may be green, but it's not grass.
Reach Bakken at (701) 780-1125; (800) 477-6572, ext. 125; or send e-mail to rbakken@gfherald.com .
