It used to be that people in the kingdom would come before the king and ask for grants and favors, and, on Friday, July 29, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners held a modern version of the same ritual.
In the Carolyn Q. Coleman meeting room – formerly the Blue Room – the board held a four-hour morning meeting to hear requests from various groups who want some of the $100 million-plus in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) money that Guilford County is getting from the federal “rescue” plan to help with economic fallout from the pandemic.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners listened carefully to presentations from various groups who wanted the money to go toward things like school nurses, plans to address food insecurity, NC Cooperative Extension programs, Foster Care initiatives and more.
The meeting ran from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and it became clear at the end that the board will have to meet several more times before making any final decisions on how to spend the money.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said the board should hold a series of work sessions in the coming weeks.
“Time is of the essence,” Alston said regarding the money that the board wants to get into the hands of community groups and county departments that can put it to good use.
Commissioner Justin Conrad said that there may be some programs where consensus can be reached quickly and others where commissioners may not agree.
“We have heard some great presentations today,” Conrad said at the end of the meeting. “Each commissioner here has their individual priorities, and some may align and some may not.”
Several commissioners said there were other groups needing funding that they wanted to bring to the board for consideration. Commissioner Carlvena Foster for instance, who represents many High Point residents, said she knew of projects in that city that should be put on the docket for funding consideration.
The King is dispensing favors (buying power & votes), with the extorted citizens’ money.
This week, I’ve been reading about the State of the Union. You should be vewy afwaid. All the news is bad. The Machine in Washington is handing out TRILLIONS of non-funded goodies. The money is added to the national debt, now at some 130+% of the GDP. TRILLIONS more by October. Funded by the printing press in Washington. More of the worthless paper (plastic) we use, buying still less, and less, and less….. How long before hungry & homeless people take to the streets? Can you say Argentina? Turkey? Venezuela? Sri Lanka?
Don’t worry, Big Brother will come to our rescue.
And the Dems move forward with even more obscene deficit spending – which they’re calling The Inflation Reduction Act!
Now they’re just mocking us. The Left is evil.
Skip and your tax $ at work…better get your honest auditors ready.
Skip will want some of that $$ for the ICRM so they can buy some more property that will be removed from the tax rolls. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
The hiney kissing fund for CBO’s.
Gotta love it.
As the American people and nation suffer under recession and inflation, so the Parasitic (“Public”) Sector is awash with money. It is an irrefutable example of government greed, and it’s disgusting.
Funds spent by states, counties, and cities from ARP funding must fit into one of these general categories.
Responding to the public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic
Providing premium pay to essential workers
Providing government services to the extent of revenue loss due to the pandemic
Making necessary investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure
The problem is that state, county, and city governments are permitted to transfer funds to non-profit organizations if the funds are used for permitted purposes. But the guidelines on what fits within the four categories were intentionally left vague in the final federal rule issued to guide recipients. Although it can be anticipated that across the country politicians will use this program to reward favored groups and spread the funds a mile wide and an inch deep, nobody seriously expects the federal government to disallow any uses of the money. The ARP program probably was needed, it could be a great one-time chance to deal with serious infrastructure needs, and it could have actually been spent so as to help individuals and businesses impacted by Covid. At the hands of the political classes it will be none of those things and in five years there will be little or nothing to show for the funds spent on the program.
Moved out of Greensboro and very thankful we did. It such a corrupt run city and will only get worse. Homeowners are getting ready to be taxed to death. How in the world the “powers that be” keep getting re elected is beyond my comprehension.
More taxation is confiscation of wealth