Would you do business with the federal government if you didn’t have to? Swain County is still making waves because it has not received moneys promised by a long-ago settlement for compensation after the TVA took acreage off the tax rolls to create Lake Fontana.
Shuler has twice gotten the annual $4 million payment appropriated for Swain County as part of the National Park Service budget — but both times it failed to actually reach Swain County. In 2011, the payment was rescinded after being caught up in an across-the-board clamp down on earmarks. So far in 2012, the National Park Service is refusing to release it, citing bureaucratic procedures that it wants followed.
