From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
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The city is seeking to use EDIT monies as its local match to apply for a $2 million federal grant to rebuild and improve a section of South E Street.
Too many local governments over too many years have become complacent in their expectations of these monies from Washington. They are in for a rude awakening, or their residents are, long after they have left office. A federal government, a nation actually, drowning in nearly $16 trillion in deficit red ink is going to either drastically change policy course or go bankrupt, neither alternative of which bodes well for the future of these federal pipelines funding local projects.
We offer two suggestions as part of a community's ongoing, welcome discussions about economic development.
The first is to work up a bipartisan, agreeable local definition of economic development for purposes of spending future EDIT dollars. It can guide us well for years to come. If road projects are part of that definition, so be it, but at least we have a shared understanding and agreement.
The second is to make sure that henceforth responsible elected local council and school board members register a vote on federal grant applications made on behalf of and ostensibly to benefit their jurisdictions and constituents. Yes, we want to see a fair return on the tax dollars we send to Washington. But those are taxpayers' dollars, so taxpayers deserve to learn how they're to be spent locally.
Such a vote would also represent something akin to a local stand on runaway federal deficits. As such, it might just catch on among other councils and school boards across the nation.
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012206110307
