It gets very old saying the same, elementary rhetoric all the time, and getting treated like a fool. So, here we go again.

Asheville city council is being asked to accept state and federal funds. NCDENR is availing $115,800 in grant moneys for stormwater wetlands and rain gardens at the WNC Nature Center and another $53,000 for a rain garden for the Reed Creek Greenway.

Now, supposing preserving habitat for bullfrogs didn’t grab you as a public good, you would surely be enticed by a state grant in the amount of $108,109 for the administration of six strategies to help the state reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and NOx emissions from automobiles by 25%. (Forget baselines. This is government.) Asheville’s strategy will include a marketing plan, coordination, program promotion, and data processing. Then, the city would write another grant for the feds to contribute $52,016 for transit planning with a $6502 match from the state.

Not to worry, the moneys are all grants. If Asheville does not grab the funds, somebody else will, and it isn’t right to ask Asheville not to take its fair share. Besides, the staff reports for all grants made it clear that the matching funds were already budgeted, so there will be no financial impact on the city except the gains in free money from the state and federal government.

And so, I was wondering if maybe some smart alec Libertarian activists had figured out a way to write the best grant proposals, fail to cooperate with the strings attached, and allow the funds to revert to the general funds of their sources.

The Hendersonville Times-News published an AP article lamenting how there just isn’t enough money to solve murder cases, so 39% of murders, nationwide, compared to 9% in 1963, remain unsolved. Even if enough detectives could be hired and equipped, the state and federal governments can’t find enough money to build prisons and take murderers off the street. And, even if the state and federal government made more grants available for local law enforcement, progressive leadership would likely use the funds to buy aprons for sworn officers to wear as they cut paper dolls with underprivileged children in public housing.