XYZ Beer Metropolitan Detention Center “?”

Capitalism at work in America, everyday you see large corporations placing their names on sports facilities and mega office complexes. Corporations have the capital to spend on large buildings and to support charities so why not allow them to finance the construction of our government buildings and schools? Why not allow them to donate large sums of money to pay government employees’ salaries? I see signs on the local sports stadium every morning as I drive to work.

Difficult questions to answer in a year when the state budget is so tight that we need every penny to just meet the payrolls for government employees and support local non-profits.

First I have a problem with Corporate America ever paying for our jails and/or court systems because we want to keep these two systems separate and independent from each other. At no time do we want our courts to appear bias in any way toward Corporate America. This does not mean that Corporate American could not sponsor drug and alcohol rehab programs. XYZ Beer would not be a good idea for the detention center but a XYZ Beer Drug and Alcohol Rehab Center that could reduce the inmate population would be a welcome sight in this state especially if it did not cost the voters a cent.

And on the other hand we want to encourage Corporate America to support public education because it could only benefit both systems in the long run. Corporate America wants a well trained workforce for future development. Why not encourage large corporations to build new schools for local communities. Rather than naming a school Roosevelt why not Intel or Microsoft? The school could teach children the science that they would need to be good future employees of these businesses. We want businesses to provide input into what makes a good employee. Schools would welcome partnerships between highly trained corporate employees and professional educators which could include team teaching in the classrooms.

Over 40% of our state’s budget goes to education if that could be cut by corporate sponsorship then more could be spent on other areas of government. If taxpayers did not have to pay to build schools or pay teachers salaries then maybe the money could then be used to run the court systems at a higher scale. I don’t think it would be wise to allow beer companies or fast food companies to support schools but large corporations that produce a product that provides local jobs would be a good starting point.

This is an idea that bears thinking about because it could benefit both Corporate America and the voting public in this state. Some form of partnership between these systems could only benefit our state in the future during difficult economic times.