‘Found money,’ ‘something necessary,’ the rebate, and stimulus
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The so-called fiscal-conservative elected officials in Waynesboro are falling all over themselves to spend the $560,000 in “found money” resulting from last fiscal year’s budget surplus. Vice Mayor Frank Lucente has even suggested recently that he would like to see the city hold onto the money “until we need it for something necessary.”
“Something necessary”? That sounds to me like somebody wanting to spend my money on something that he wants to spend it on.
Reminds me of my first sitdown at a meeting of the Waynesboro Citizens for Responsible Spending last week. I like the name and the aims, but I began to have issue with the group just a few minutes into the meeting, when a person described as one of the founding members of the group walked to the podium and spent the next several minutes rambling on and on about how “ObamaCare” was going to bankrupt the nation, then gave way to another founding member who spoke for close to 10 minutes on a local historic landmark that she thinks the city should commit time and money to repairing. Continue reading “‘Found money,’ ‘something necessary,’ the rebate, and stimulus” »
Smith: Rebate?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
It was so quick that the newspapers and TV missed it, but Waynesboro City Councilwoman Lorie Smith raised an interesting idea at last week’s City Council meeting as to what the city could decide to do with the $560,000 in found money coming from a year-end budget surplus.
“I’ve got questions around that. I don’t know if we can legally rebate some of that money to the taxpayers,” Smith said at the Jan. 25 City Council meeting, before asking City Manager Mike Hamp to explore the options available to the city to use the surplus money for a refund to taxpayers.
The focus to that point had been on using the money to fund unfinished city projects.
Smith also asked Hamp to explore the possible use of some of the monies to fund economic-development initiatives. The city has been without an economic-development director since August 2008, and development efforts have been on the backburner with the position left open.
“Those are all comprehensive discussion pieces that I’d like to see the Council undertake as we move forward so that we can work with a plan in mind,” Smith said.
