Colorado buys TARC buses for Louisville; Delaware pays for Georgetown sewers

Hey, wait a second. I wonder what Louisville and Georgetown residents paid for in other states?

Here's Sheldon Shafer in the C-J on the TARC story-- 17 buses, costing $330K apiece, for a total of $5.6 million, 80% of which came from taxpayers in other areas in the country. Thanks Colorado!

There's more good news in the article: taxpayers in the rest of the country will send us nine new buses in 2010. They cost $600K apiece.

And here's Debbie Harbeson in the Jeff/NA Tribune ripping into Ed Clere's recent article for bragging about bringing federal tax dollars in to fund a local project.

Ed is a nice enough guy. But the redistribution is ridiculous-- and his bragging about it was tasteless.

Here are some excerpts from another great piece by Harbeson:

Good for Clere. He performed his job well. This is exactly what he’s supposed to do. By filling out the right papers, he’s made quite a few people very thankful and they’ll take care of him now. So the system lives. The system grows.

I also can’t blame Clere for writing a column promoting his successful stimulation of sewers. What I don’t get is why he felt the need to pile on so much additional doo-doo.

Most ridiculous was his comment about how important this is because it helps Georgetown residents afford their sewer bills. Well of course it’s hard to afford it; they have to pay for the stimulus projects his cohorts are also handing out around the country.

He also explains that he’s making sure this area gets back our “fair share.” But what does that mean? What evidence does he have to prove that this was our area’s “fair share?” Does the citizen living in Podunk, USA, who received nothing think this is true? “Fair share” is impossible to calculate, nor do we know what economic activities have been stifled due to the stimulus handouts....

But by far, what bugged me most is when Clere congratulated himself while at the same time claiming to disagree with the federal government’s way of stimulating the economy. I simply do not get that. All of his energy was spent on continuing the system, in fact, legitimizing the system, and none on figuring out how to change it so why bother to even say that?...

I understand if money’s been taken and we can do something to get some back, it’s certainly practical to do so. Yet there must be a feeling that something’s inherently wrong with the system or else Clere would not feel the need to share that he disagrees at the same time he’s proclaiming success....

If we are to accept the idea that it’s only practical to try and get money back that’s been forcibly taken, then the root issue must be handing over the money in the first place, right? The money gives the system its power. Or to be more exact, the belief that it’s moral to take the money in the first place is what gives the system its power....

So how about you? Where do you stand on the basic morality of a group of people being able to take money by force...