Government Money Pump

Free Money!

The governor came to Eastern Washington last week and stopped in Malden. He observed the devastation of the Labor Day fire, donated a box of wormy apples to supplement the assistance already being provided by friends and neighbors, then gave a lecture on global warming. I’m sure that was a comfort to those who lost their homes and family heirlooms in the blaze. He hinted that the state may be able to free up some money to help those who lost their homes. He went on to Pullman where he chastised college kids for acting like college kids. He accused them of, “partying like there were no tomorrow”, and warned, that there would be no tomorrow if they didn’t all wear masks and maintain the proper social distance. He went on to promise the state would devote whatever funds required to defeat the Coronavirus. I wondered where he would get the funds. A year ago, he said the state would have to cancel essential road maintenance if I-976 passed and the state could only charge $30 for car tabs. Since then COVID19 has eaten a huge hole in the state’s budget, but the state keeps spending despite the projected $4.5 billion shortfall.

Each rural Eastern Washington village recently received an e-mail informing us that the state had established a fund for Coronavirus relief for municipalities. Our village qualified for $30,000. All we had to do was sign a contract with the state and provide documentation of past or future spending caused by the pandemic. The e-mail was part of a 34-page complicated, confusing document. We contacted the bureaucrat in charge of the program and received some suggestions on how we could benefit. We could buy laptops for the Mayor, City Clerk, and each member of the council in case we decided to have on-line meetings. I explained that our meetings had all been in-person, plus we all had our own computers. “But”, he said, “you would qualify for free money if we wanted to have virtual meetings in the future.” “Or” he went on, “You could buy computers to loan to kids for on-line classes.” He offered to come help us justify access to the funds and warned us that somebody is going to spend the money, so we might as well get our share. I promised to bring his offer before the full council and see what they thought.

Personally, I don’t think I could stretch the facts far enough to be comfortable sharing in the largesse. I think my Daddy would be ashamed of me. I know my brother-in-law would be disappointed. In a former life, I was head of the Air Force refueling program and managed a megabuck budget. One of my staff officers came to me with a proposal that would cost the taxpayer several million dollars. I remembered a promise I had made twenty years prior, and told my staff officer, “I don’t think my brother-in-law, Jim, would approve of that.” I recalled Jim pulling me aside during my wedding reception and said, “Frank you are going to be in charge of a lot of public money.” I explained I was a Second Lieutenant and wasn’t in charge of anything. “But someday you will, and I ask that you treat each dollar as if it was the one, I contributed.” I promised him I would. My staff officer said he thought Jim would approve and actually called him and asked, but we began to manage each dollar as if it were Jim’s contribution. Government at all levels should manage public money as if it belonged to the citizens they supposedly work for.

Government money is not free. Each dollar we spend comes from hard working taxpayers. Our village doesn’t need laptops to hold virtual meetings. The school already provides computers for needy children. In order to qualify for free state money, we could have to stretch the facts in order to buy goods and equipment we don’t need. Jim would disapprove.

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for over 20 years.