Federal Grants

The purpose of Federal Grants is to give State and Local Politicians a chance to get funding for useless projects that would not be supported by their voters.

The rationale Politicians use is that this is free money from the federal government that we don’t have to pay from City, County and State Revenues.

The problem is that this local project spending is too easy and encourages political advocates to push agendas voters object to. It also encourages corporate welfare for “economic development” beyond the traditional tax holiday bribes rural counties use to get manufacturing plants in their counties.

Cities, Counties and States all compete to increase GDP and attract a Self-Supporting Population. If cities want more Parks, they need to pay for these themselves.  If they do this, the “park advocates” will be out-voted by the voters and Park Bonds will fail unless parks are actually needed and voters get a good deal.

Federal subsidies have resulted in the quadrupling of costs for city, county and State infrastructure. In 2010, the cost repaving asphalt was $75,000 per lane mile. In 2012, it doubled to $150,000 per lane mile. Now in 2019, it is $300,000 per lane mile.  The cost of asphalt didn’t quadruple, but what contractors charge did quadruple. Cities, Counties and States no longer take the “lowest bid”. The cost of redoing intersections, has also quadrupled. Cities didn’t have to hire Engineering Firms to design their roads and intersections before 2010, but now they do.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader