Groksters– Not just spouting off, but actually fighting the fight in the trenches. Taking a stand for our childrens’ future. Dammit… SOMEBODY’S gotta do it! From the Gilford Steamer (PDF), a local paper published once a week:
BudCom considers stimulus funding
BY SARAH SCHMIDT
As stimulus funds are funneled through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Gilford Budget Committee briefly considered what effect such funding might have on their future budget decisions.
Committee member Sue Greene brought up the question at the committee‘s organizational meeting last Thursday, concerned about “purchases outside the process.” She remembered a computer system purchased outside the budget after a grant was received midway through the year. The subject had come up before the board, Greene said, and the decision was “not to do it,and the purchase was made anyway.”
“There are sizeable purchases made by the police department because of the stimulus, things that most likely would have been purchased anyway,” Greene said.
Greene referred to approval given in April by the Gilford Board of Selectmen to the Gilford Police Department, authorizing them to apply for federal funding for equipment, including items like weapons and computers.
The Edward Bryne Memorial Justice Act is part of the ARRA, intended to give funding to police departments across the nation. Since police departments in Belknap County agreed to seek funding through the act together, Gilford would be eligible for about $22,250 of the potential full grant of $217,578 that the county applied for.
“If there is a surplus, the money should be returned to the citizens who paid taxes,” said committee member Terry Stewart. “We have a bottom line, and what they have, they’re entitled to.”
Gilford School Board representative Margo Weeks said that the school district had received no funding as of yet from the ARRA. She said that the school is looking at things that they “wouldn’t put in because of prioritization.”
Committee member Doug Lambert said that the purchase of computers and weapons with the grant money was “goodie-buying,” and said that if the town needed computers, that he would vote for them. He said that paying for the stimulus funding would last long into the future.
“We as a town are accepting federal money that our grandchildren will have to pay for,” said Lambert. “We’ll be paying for things that will be long gone before the money is paid back.”
“Elections have consequences,” noted board Chair Dick Hickok. Stewart said that since “the idea is to give towns a break from the money they would normally spend,” the committee could say that they don’t need those items in the larger budget. The $22,000 that the police department could receive from the ARRA could be taken into consideration during budget talks in fall. “I want to do something about what I can control,” said Stewart.“We can tell the police department that they get that much less.”
Greene said that they would remember that in September.