A group of Kossuth County residents running a petition drive against a proposed ethanol plant say they aren’t against corn alcohol. Floyd Bode of Algona says the county is considering backing a five-point- two-million-dollar loan for Midwest Grain Processors, and his argument is that local property revenues would be at risk if the deal falls through.He says if the plant goes belly-up, the county will be broke, because it’ll have to pay off creditors. Bode says property tax money should go to local schools and government, not business investment. He says private investors should put up money for the ethanol plant.He says it won’t kill the plan to refuse public financing. Bode says it’s a matter of finding private funds, something he says will be clear if the project fails. Bode’s been working for days circulating petitions to ask the county not to loan the company money or issue general-obligation bonds to build the proposed plant, just west of Lakota in the northern part of Kossuth County.He says corn prices may go up, and while it’s be nice for farmers, it could make ethanol too costly. Bode says nobody’s against ethanol, but they want the county to stay out of financing the plant. The Kossuth county board holds a public hearing Tuesday morning on the funding proposal.
