Republicrate or Rhino?
Posted by John B. Kalb - 4/21/08 @ 10:07 am - Filed Under Local Politics
Saturday’s local page of the News-Sentinel had a column by Kevin Leininger titled ” No such thing as ‘free’ money. Applause to County Councilman Cal Miller’s vote on the “$100,000 sidewalk for 15 or 16 students” vote. But did you catch Councilman Nelson Peters comment on this item? This from a self-professed conservative Republican lawmaker and I quote, ” The money would just have gone somewhere else, probably far away”. This is a BIG government excuse for an action - in no way a conservative response! Since to be elected in Allen County almost requires you to profess being in the Republican party, we get people like this that are so far from the historic Republican principles that it makes you wonder. This is the same guy that traveled to Indianapolis with our previous Democratic mayor to pitch the greatness of tearing down a 14 year old Memorial Stadium that had just been paid off with the BIG government push to build a monument to public ownership, but giving a private, Atlanta-based corporation total control of the facility. Leininger’s final five paragraphs cover what is wrong with these so-called “earmarks” - AND PIGS MAY BE FLYING SOON IN ALLEN COUNTY!
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4 Responses to “Republicrate or Rhino?”
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So… Mr. Kalb, your answer is to continue to send even more of our hard earned dollars to Washington? Indiana is a donor state which means we give more to Washington than we get back. As an elected official, I thought it was my responsibility to seek dollars for local projects, not offer them up for everyone else in the country. and… I don’t remember ever making a trip to Indy “with our previous Democratic mayor and have been very clear that I was never in favor of replicating Memorial Stadium. Please work a little harder to get your facts straight. Thanks…
Right on, Mr. Peters. I have two grandchildren
that live in Hoagland and they will be attending
Hoagland Elementary. I suppose if Mr. Kalb or Mr. Miller had children or grandchildren living in Hoagland, their opinion of this GRANT money would be different. There are no sidewalks for the children to use to walk safely to school or to the playground behind the school that is used by many families throughout the year.
Thanks to Mr. Peters, the county council members and commissioners that voted in favor of applying for this GRANT.
We appreciate you looking out for the “little
guys”.
Shelby
I many be in the minority here I don’t know. But I don’t feel it’s the responsibility of local officials to try and control spending in DC. Surely they can lobby for whatever changes they’d like, but as long as DC is handing out our tax dollars then I want our local officials to get as much of it as they can.
Now one can argue the priority of certain projects in the community but something is better than nothing as far as I’m concerned. Our current congressman is not the most effective so it seems that federal money doesn’t get to us as often as it should anyway…
Mr. Peters - I guess I misunderstood Kathleen Quilligan’s column in the News-Sentinel on October 5, 2007 where she reported,” A much-awaited approval of a $45.9 million bond to help fund the $125 million to $160 million downtown revitalization project cleared its last financial hurdle Wednesday during a meeting of Indiana Department of Local Government Finance Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave, ALLEN COUNTY COMMISSIONER NELSON PETERS and MAYOR GRAHAM RICHARD.”
So did you or did you not meet with Ms. Musgrave and our former mayor Mr. Richard in Indianapolis on Wednesday, October 3, 2007? And, in what way are my facts wrong?
And, Mr. Peters, to quote from your letter to the editor in the News-Sentinel on Friday, April 13, 2007, “Government should not borrow against its future on a wing and a prayer. Government should do all it can to enhance its citizens lives WHILE LIVING WITHIN ITS FINANCIAL MEANS.” In what way are items like this(a small amount), and items like the $55 million boondoggle bridge(a very large amount), that you are pushing, related to this statement?
And, Shelby - What possible responsibility do our countrys federal taxpayers have to sidewalks in Hoagland, Indiana? Why can’t Hoagland take care of their own infrastructure? That’s the problem with these so called “earmarks”, citizens assume that it is “free money” - it is not FREE - it’s actually very expensive money, because $2 to $3 of every $10 we send to Washington ever gets back to anyplace. And, as Mr. Peters pointed out, we in Indiana pay more than others so our cost is more like $3 to $4 for every $10. ONLY THE POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS PROFIT FROM “Big Government”!