They call economics the dismal science, and boxing the sweet science. I used to find this very confusing. However, after taking a look at the headline in this week’s crosstown broadsheet concerning Grand Junction’s Two Rivers Convention Center, I think I get it.

In boxing when you are knocked down, they stop the fight.

Apparently in economics, at least as practiced in city-managed "businesses," getting knocked down just means the pummeling is just getting started.

The city is celebrating news that the Two Rivers Convention Center has posted its lowest operating deficit to date. I give credit to the Daily Sentinel for publishing the story at the top of the fold, not unlike the red light on the top of an ambulance to signify an emergency.

There is no doubt it is cause for serious concern given the response to this bit of news at City Hall. The disorienting piece of the story is that the City Finance Department is dancing a veritable jig over the fact that they have lost the least amount of money, and I’m not making this up, in the last 11 years.

Now, by what measure could a private organization call this a success when after 11 years of trying to sell their product, customers still aren’t buying it in sufficient numbers to pay for its day to day operation. The bankruptcy courts are replete with success stories of this nature. But that venue is not a possibility with municipal government, where ever-increasing sales tax revenues support such misadventures.

There is an almost admirable stubbornness about celebrating 11 years of failure that reminds me of my grandmother’s tale of a mule they once owned that would spend the day pushing against an electric fence, despite being shocked, in the continued effort to break it down.

How would such a report be greeted by stockholders in a corporation that announced such a dismal result? And what must consumers think of a product rejected after 11 years of sales, marketing and millions of dollars in renovation?

I look up at my great-grandfather’s Colt Peacemaker, which he carried when he herded cattle on the Dallas Divide, and I ask myself, "What would have happened in his day at such a result?"

A vision of public officials awkwardly riding fence rails carried by outraged citizenry toward the county line comes to mind. I realize that times have indeed changed. Let us not forget that the numbers quoted have to do with the operating deficit of the facility, not the millions spent a number of years ago for its renovation. I remember speaking with public officials at the time on my radio show as they extolled the new business the renovation would bring about.

What is of most concern is the lack of concern. What is the source of this lack of care the gentle reader might ask? The answer is quite simple, the city suffers an embarrassment of riches. A quarter does not go by that we do not hear that the sales tax revenues collected exceed even optimistic estimates. They are awash in money. Like Scrooge McDuck, they dive in and out of vast stores of it, doing backstrokes through silver dollars.

The city collects in the neighborhood of $900, or a little bit more, per year for every individual within its confines. According to the Center for Tax Policy, in 2006, Colorado as a whole, stood eighth highest in the nation in local tax collections. And that’s for the entire state.

A couple of questions then might be asked of candidates for the next City Council election. First: How dead must the horse be before you will dismount? Corollary of that: How many years must the horse be dead before you consider dismounting?

Second: How much money should be spent decorating the dead horse hoping that it will return to life?

Here is the most chilling aspect of the story. Even though the facility has continued to lose money every year for more than a decade, officials in charge do not believe it is large enough. They believe that another 24,000 square feet needs to be added. I repeat, I am not making this up.

Expanding a failing business is not one’s usual course of action unless one subscribes to the business maxim of, we lose money on every sale but make it up on volume.

With all of this success at this location, the city still found the need to build a parking garage somewhere else. The existing Two Rivers facility could have been re-engineered into a multi-story parking garage, it looks like one anyway. And should it break even as a parking lot, it would still be doing better than as a convention center. All hope may not be lost, however. In Dave Varley, we have a new city manager who in my experience has been very responsive. I understand the new assistant has also shown that tendency and the recent reorganization bodes well for their efforts. Let us hope that continues.