Government rewarding government

There is a little publicized trend in federal and state government circles to give awards to local government bodies for promoting larger and more expensive government. The awards, in the form of grants or points towards grant applications, come from citizen friendly sounding organizations that are no more than government employee sponsored lobbyists or government funded not-for-profits or just other government departments. They are there for no other purpose than to force higher local spending which translates into higher taxes. They are one of the biggest scams being perpetrated on the American taxpayer.

One recent award was made to the Cleveland Municipal Airport Authority, named Governing Body of the Year for demonstrating exceptional leadership. Have you ever heard of anything so fake and asinine and un-American?......  Governing Body of the Year! This award was awarded by the Tennessee Transportation Department to yes, one of its fledglings, even though the vast majority of citizens in Bradley County reject the need for a new airport. So now we have a sham airport authority receiving a sham award by a transportation department that would fit in better in the Soviet Union than Tennessee and we have local media advertising its praises knowing full well it is a scam being waged against the citizens of this area.

And the Cleveland City Council, with ne'er a raise of an eyebrow, "loaned" said authority $340,000 for land acquisitions for an unwanted airport that has not completed all the studies to receive federal and state funding. Where did this money come from that wasn't in the budget? And if there is $340,000, maybe there is more hidden from the taxpayer. And if not one red cent will come from local taxes for an airport, as we have been told, why isn't the state anteing up the $340,000?

"Demonstrating exceptional leadership" in government talk means hoodwinking the public.

There are many fake government awards and programs being used by local government officials to raise the cost of running our community with ever larger government. You will be hearing more of those in coming months.

That's what I think. What do you think?

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