There are endless sets of hands reaching out for Government money – taken from the rest of us involuntarily through our taxes but at least this guy admits it.
He is trying to weasel it out of the Belknap County Delegation budget.
What’s 35 cents worth? Plenty in Belknap County, if you’re interested in good stewardship of our natural resources. For 75 years, the Belknap County Conservation District has provided conservation information and assistance and helped protect land and water resources. County funds help support this effort. The cost averages about 35 cents in taxes for a $200,000 property.
Not quite a cuppa coffee anymore with inflation, but the principle is still the same. In fact, I used to tell folks coming to the Budget Committee to get their cut of the town’s budget (who really did, seemingly, feel entitled to it) that when they used that line on me, I responded that I was already pulling a couple of tankers behind me due to the number of organizations that believed my cuppa belonged to them (or at the least, should be in their hands).
They didn’t like it that when it all gets added up for every group, that’s a whole year’s worth of coffee and more. And I don’t even LIKE coffee!
But the shill marches on and these guys, Richard DeMark and [Jessica Bailey, Donna Hepp, Jamie Irving, Earle Chase, Kenn Ketternring] all have the same standard worn out ploys:
- Look at all the wonderful work we’ve done on your behalf!
- We COLLECTIVELY can get it done!
- It costs you so little!
- Why won’t you give us more???
Both of those Letters to the Editor mention the “success” of getting the new No-Till Seed Driller but never brought up the one they let slip through their fingers that Doug’s company had to go and fix.
Sidenote: WHY should the County Government even be IN the equipment rental business in the first place??? And yes, apply that to the Gunstock Ski Area!
What they won’t say is that Collectively we didn’t get it done last year or the years before so we need more money now.
You see, these “pseudo-government” groups do nice things – I won’t deny them that. But they exude an entitlement outlook because it ISN’T just the County budget they go after. Organizations like this go after all the Town budgets as well as the County. That’s the Double Dip.
Then they go after the State’s, and then the Feds – a Quadruple Dip. At least now they’re admitting it: part of their pattern includes the Magic Money Multiplier Effect! Give us some money, a really SMALL sum, and we can turn it into a LARGE one!
Who do they think they are, Congress?
For every $1 in county funding, BCCD generates $18 in products and services for Belknap County residents through donations, volunteers, grants for conservation projects and technical assistance. County funding is essential in our ability to leverage grant funds from private, state and federal sources to get soil and watershed conservation projects on the ground to conserve and enhance the Lakes Region’s environment and economy. In 2022, we asking for $50,000 in county support (the same amount as approved last year) to help cover administrative costs which enable us to respond effectively to requests for assistance from landowners, businesses and towns and provide surplus produce to food pantries and seniors. In 2021 BCCD’s estimated value to Belknap County was $973,875.
From $50,000 to just under $1 million. How can I do that with my household budget? No, I can’t. And neither can they. It’s just sheer financial snake oil being sold to you and being told you have to like it.
But they tried it twice, using the same text in two separate Letters to the Editor.
It’s almost as if they conspired to create boilerplate to make the impression that the BCCD has WIDE support!
Sidenote: This is why form letters sent to the government and politicians don’t work when orgs and people get caught doing it.
It is a shill game as they use the fact that they got “supported” all up and down the levels of the Government trough system.
Start low and work upward. Start at the middle and beg both downward and upward. Start at the top and there goes the bragging that the lower levels should ante up because they got money from the top guys (so we MUST be doing good works!).
As I have written before, one lady that appeared before my Town’s Budcomm said, in effect that we should fund her organization as “we’re part of Government, too!”
It wasn’t until I quickly pipped up and said “well, are you going to open up your books to us and then allow us to set your priorities if you are part of the Town Government – just like we do with all of our other departments?” The response was amazing – she didn’t think she would get challenged on that and the look of horror was fantastic!
And then she got REAL angry and left in a huff – and she never returned again.
If you can’t tell, I’m no fan at all of these groups coming with handouts. They just want to convince a small handful of politicians to give them other peoples’ money. A few minutes of work and their coffers can swell. Make no mistake, they are LAZY!
They never seem to want to do the hard work of going door-knocking or phone calling for dollars. Mostly because most people say no.
But the politicians, those are the ones they can demand that the rest of us have to say Yes – involuntarily.
