Almost a year ago today, I wrote that the stimulus money that Bartow County was receiving would ultimately cost the taxpayers of this county.  First we all need to remember that this money was taken from us in the form of taxes to begin with.  The Obama administrations answer to our economic downturn has been to throw money at the problem which has been an absolute failure.

The unemployment rate at the time which the stimulus money was enacted was 7% and we currently have a rate of over 10%. Many experts put the real rate of unemployment at 17% if you factor in those who are underemployed or who have given up looking for work at all.  Most of the money that has been spent to date went to pet projects that the Democrats have been trying to fund for years. Only a small fraction of the stimulus dollars went to those “shovel ready” projects.  We are now finding that many of those projects were not ready to begin or have not been fully funded  in the first place.

Today an article was written in The Daily Tribune about how these stimulus dollars have cost the taxpayers of Bartow County $186,000. These funds created a situation where the Water Department spent money that they may not have budgeted for projects that have not been funded to date by the state or federal government.

Local officials publicly say they are not upset with the money spent on projects that have yet to materialize.  They indicate that work done will be ready when the projects are finally funded.  The problem is that we have seen these projects never be re-funded which results in local taxpayers being left holding the bag.

Nothing is ever FREE! We must be careful rushing to accept all of this federal money because of the miles of strings that are associated with taking it.  In the end this free money may actually cost us more than just dealing with our current situation locally.

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