The recent Asheville City Council agenda gives pause for thought. State and federal funds are being made available for interesting purposes. For example, $12, 205 is being made available to both the Senior Opportunity Center and Harvest House. Funds will go toward spiffing the kitchen up with nice cabinets, countertops, and tiling. Contrast this to the rat-hole of a break room provided by my current employer who likes to keep his books in the black.
Then, federal funds for housing are being “repurposed” and otherwise shifted. People are turning to the federal government for assistance because they can’t afford to dwell anymore. Imagine what would happen If all the devils got out of providing government subsidies for housing, and market forces were allowed free reign. I suppose nobody would pay for high rents and mortgages and landlords who insisted on such high rates would get out of the business as people who could provide undercuttingly affordable abodes entered. This would, of course, require a reduction in weirdo regulations that do nothing but drive up the cost of housing in the name of buzzwords that are good at getting politicians elected.
Then, the city’s police department is accepting three grants. One is because bulletproof vests are not affordable to cities that must create sense of place and play favorites to recruit employers of choice with tax breaks. Another grant is to allow the city to purchase “speed measuring devices” because the old equipment is no longer up to new legislated standards. The third is one of those federal grants that pays the city to hire new law enforcement officers for a few years with the expectation the city will expand its budget to cover their salaries when the subsidies drop out.
