State and local governments are rushing to get rid of millions in CARES Act funding, trying to spend it before it goes back to the federal government, and they’re discovering surprising ways to do that, from “trunk-or-treating” in Ohio to an experimental basic income program in St. Paul, Minnesota. What can go wrong, am I right?
They’re giving it the old college try to get rid of the surplus money, because they don’t want to be shortchanged the next year when they do not spend everything this year. Think about it. Government workers produce nothing that earn a profit. All they do is take. And each year, every government department asks for increases in budgets to make up for increases in costs to do their jobs. But if they have a surplus by the end of the fiscal year, it means they got too much money given to them in their budget, and instead of being honest about it and returning the surplus, they spend like a drunken sailor in a red district.
The CARES Act provides $139 billion (your money) in payments to states and local governments. These payments have funded issues like increased police budgets to offset the Chinese Virus (CV-19) pandemic costs and rent and utility assistance for struggling residents.
Nonetheless, Democrat governors and mayors are additionally utilizing the cash for their own pet projects like it’s their own private slush fund.
Michigan CV-19 tyrant, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, is spending millions on free college for over 600,000 essential workers. Student loans no longer work?
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell agreed to spend $629,000 to rent 15 neighborhood relations specialists. What exactly are these new hires going to do for CV-19, and how do you rent people?
Democratic St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter recently introduced a guaranteed income program for low-income families using $300,000 in CARES Act money but has received blowback from a fellow Democrat. Earlier in September, Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN) wrote a letter to Carter expressing concern that the spending fell outside of federal guidelines and may very well be subject to recoupment by the US Treasury. Of course, they’ll cry racism, sexism, homophobia or istaphobic istaphobe nonsense as to why they should not have to give back the money.
“Without explicit federal approval, is the City prepared to take on costly litigation should the Trump administration challenge the legality of the pilot program?” McCollum wrote.
The US Treasury Department wasn’t knowledgeable of any communications from the St. Paul mayor’s office on the subject.
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has been critical of the waste and abused happening with the CARES Act. It is prefer it’s a sweet retailer for Democrats.
“Senator Scott supports using CARES Act funding for its intended purpose to help those struggling due to the [CV-19],” Scott’s office said in a statement. “He does not support using funds intended for the [CV-19], to bail out the poorly-managed budgets and pension plans of liberal states.”
Tax and federal budget policy analyst Adam Michel from the Heritage Foundation predicted that irresponsible use of federal funds might lead to higher taxes for residents, citing the federal help that state budgets received following the Great Recession.
“State and local bailouts create an incentive for state and local leaders to expand existing programs beyond sustainable levels, add new programs, and simultaneously underfund those programs in hopes of further federal support,” Michel told Fox News. “After the Great Recession, 28 states built their budgets around the expectation that Congress would renew expired funding.”
“When the federal money runs out, states have historically increased taxes; each dollar of federal grant money sent to states results in 40 cents of state and local tax increases,” he continued.
Rich is syndicated opinion columnist for David Harris Jr. and owner of Maga-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty and faith.
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