Why America is Going Broke

By Bob Shannon  King William

One need not travel any further that the KW County Admin. Bldg to see first hand why the nation is on the fast track to financial insolvency. I was there Monday evening August 8^th for the B.O.S “ work session”.  Work ……if bankrupting the nation is work, well then yes it might be counted as work. Here is the idiocy of the ruling class.

2 years ago KW received a Federal Emergency Act ( FEMA ) grant in the neighborhood of $800,000.00  ,specifically a S.A.F.E.R  ( Staffing for Adequate Fire & Rescue Response ) Grant . These grants always come with strings attached, in that the money must be spent in accordance with the conditions spelled out.

King William had spent some $150,000 of County money , our own money that paid for various equipment the fire/rescue squads needed. The S.A.F.E.R grant money would reimburse the County for the $150,000 in expenditures ……………..if the County first agrees and approves a mandated minimal $50,000 that is to be spent in a Marketing Campaign ,geared toward the goal of recruiting volunteers to the county squads.  Ask yourself a simple straightforward question, just what would one spend $50,000 on in this mandated marketing campaign and what would be the end result.  Would the marketing company run paid ads in the Country Courier or Tidewater Review ? Would they hold a pitched tent event at the County Courthouse, give a speech at the High School ?  Certainly all of this could not come close to costing $50,000 . Are these things that the County fire/rescue squads could do on their own ? It isn’t a secret that the squads are in need of volunteers so what would be the end result of this marketing campaign ?   Nada—zilch- in my humble opinion.  Someone at FEMA has a pal in the marketing industry that cooked up such goofy nonsense.

The honorable thing ,  the right thing for this B.O.S to do is to send this money back and tell the Fed’s —NO  THANKS. That won’t happen because you have 3 Supervisors on this current Board who are all advocates for this type of wasting of taxpayer’s hard earned money. Consider for the moment that this nonsense is going on in thousands of localities across America, and then you begin to grasp how we have ended up 20 Trillion dollars in accrued debt.

Add to the mix the $260,000 ( $40,000 of which would be local money ) being considered to build a “ walking trail” between the County Admin Bldg and the Courthouse and you begin to get the picture. A walking trail that at best a few dozen people would use in any given year. If spending is ever to be curtailed can we hope such frivolous low hanging fruit like these 2 examples could be voted down, otherwise instruct your children and grandchildren to batten down the hatches. Make sure you spell for them Moskalski, Greenwood and Hodges correctly so they know who lent to the mountain of debt they will find themselves digging out from.