There Really Isn't Any Santa Claus!
A few months back I was reading something in the local press about the town of Boone's "lobbying expenses". As I recall, the town budgeted for two lobbyists whose job was to lobby Washington for tax dollars to be spent on grants and/or projects in Boone.
Probably I was the only one that saw the irony in paying taxes to a federal government and then paying MORE taxes to local government so that they could spend those tax dollars lobbying the federal government for the return of some of the tax dollars I had sent there.
We have conditioned our people to believe that Federal money is "free" money - if we don't get it here, then it will go somewhere else. The problem is, Federal money is still MY TAX DOLLARS. It may come out of a different pocket, but it's still MY pants they are taking it from.
Federal grants to state/local governments also come with strings attached. Subsidizing a new program for a year or two in exchange for local governments continuing to fund the program for years and years thereafter. We thus start with Federal dollars from one pocket being spent locally and then, after two years, we start paying for the program out of a different pocket. How does this make sense for a program that we can little afford and which is unnecessary to begin with?
And then there is the law of unintended consequences.
Clinton Township in Michigan was tempted by a federal grant from "Homeland Security" for rehiring of seven laid-off firefighters. The catch? Once the money was accepted, Clinton could not lay off any firefighters for a future specified period of time. Township officials were reluctant to commit to the future 'no lay-off' provision; with a declining tax base and facing severe budgetary problems, they felt it was not prudent to make such a commitment.
They did find a solution though.....they voted to lay off an additional 12 firefighters BEFORE applying for the grant!
3 comments:
You have apparently been reading the Wolf's Bible. He has become apoplectic every time these idiots talk about grants as if they were free money. His howls of "Where do you fools think the monies for the grants come from?" have caused many embarrassed silences. The standard reply is "if we don't get it, somebody else will.", if there is a reply. The Wolf answered that one with "Is that your excuse for rape, also?"
After a certain amount of time, the Wolf does not suffer fools at all, much less gracefully.
It is both entertaining and good to be a friend of the Wolf.
Grants my good friends are the reason the nanny state is in YOUR backdoor right now. Police, for example, were able to increase their numbers and equipment through Federal Grants. We don't need anymore police or laws folks so why have we been funding more? Federal Grants are exactly the reason Blowing Rock PD went from a decent police department to one that sets up speed traps on 321 in hopes of catching you speeding in order to try and find something else to arrest you for. This type of aggressive, over-policing is running rampant. Cut their funds and return them to what they are supposed to be - a call for service department who makes an occassional school presentation (very occassional) or gets a cat out of a tree.
Same thing for the Fire Departments. Our county survived just fine on volunteer fire departments. Then, when grants started coming our way, we suddenly couldn't get along anymore with community members putting out fires. We now have full time fire fighters drawing large saleries for nothing. They can't fight the fires until the auxillary gets there!!!!
Federal Grants puts government at your doorstep and YOU are stuck funding it!!!!!! Get rid of 50% of police and all full time fire fighters in Watauga County. Time for personal responsibility to take back our society.
Federal Grants are extremely damaging to our society - demand that your County Commissioners don't accept any of them.
Johnny Rico
liberal pov idiots,
You smucks are silent I see. What more can you expect from pedophiles who support ACORN enslaving young girls for sex acts. You idiots might just be under investigation for your views - is that why you don't defend them? LOL!!!!!
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