Thread: Street stimulus projects

If as they say, these are all free programs, then why do our taxes keep going up ? Is it possible the taxpayers are being lied to, again?

Originally Posted by Grumpy

If as they say, these are all free programs, then why do our taxes keep going up ? Is it possible the taxpayers are being lied to, again?

If in fact, these are free programs, and yet our taxes keep going up, just whose pockets are getting lined ?????

I probably should care about that, but I don't care as much as which pocket is getting picked to line someone else's. If I owed as much more than I have coming in like the government, I would be filing bankruptcy or facing jail time.

Originally Posted by notinkokomo

TimeforChange... first of all, Welcome to NotInKokomo.Com. I do believe you are our first new member since our own 'change' to a registered-only forum.

We're glad to see you here!

Your comments concerning federal grant matching mirror my own concern: there is never 'free' money with no strings attached when it comes to our enormously-wasteful federal grant programs.

How is it that these 'matches' are never mentioned in the local or even state media? Is there a way to determine how much local money has been co-opted by 'free' stimulus programs? I'd sure like to know...

Take, for example, the new 'free' bus service in Kokomo. It's been touted as 'free' federal money everywhere... yet... is it?

I wonder....

NIK

Well if the city says free and no tax increases then that's just to get the attention to those citizens who don't pay that close attention. They see free and say wow what a great thing this mayor is doing but shortly the grant money runs out and the taxpayers are left with the burden of paying for all these projects started with grant money. Plus you can't mention the fact the city has to match those grants with a certain %. Usually 20% to 50%. Cause if you do then the free advertisement is no longer good for re-election.

Originally Posted by Timeforachange

Well if the city says free and no tax increases then that's just to get the attention to those citizens who don't pay that close attention. They see free and say wow what a great thing this mayor is doing but shortly the grant money runs out and the taxpayers are left with the burden of paying for all these projects started with grant money. Plus you can't mention the fact the city has to match those grants with a certain %. Usually 20% to 50%. Cause if you do then the free advertisement is no longer good for re-election.

This gets us back to WHY the City of Kokomo refuses to publish its entire budget in an electronic format so citizens can see where the money is going.

Howard County did that... your Commissioners insisted upon it.... and we made that info available for all to see... every fund, every grant.

Howard County Budget Raw Data

Why does the City of Kokomo find it so difficult to do the same thing?

NIK

Have you ever heard anyone from city hall say how much they liked this forum? Don't think so. I think they are scared to death because here they will get feedback that they can't control.
Also if the mayor is the bully suggested by some on here it makes a lot of sense. Bullies usually don't have the Kho-honies to face criticism directly.

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Have you ever heard anyone from city hall say how much they liked this forum? Don't think so. I think they are scared to death because here they will get feedback that they can't control.
Also if the mayor is the bully suggested by some on here it makes a lot of sense. Bullies usually don't have the Kho-honies to face criticism directly.

It doesn't matter in the slightest whether they like 'this forum' or not. Howard County published the info on its website and we re-posted it here.

Funny, I didn't see a link in either of Kokomo's fine newspapers to the County data.

We BOTH gave our readers the County link and then re-published the information in a more readable format.

This isn't about the Mayor... this is about being honest and doing the right thing.

Why should anyone rely on the information being parceled out (with commentary) from local news when the voters can look at the spending themselves? Why wouldn't the city administrators WANT you to have that information?

Are they afraid what you would find... or are they just too lazy or incompetent to do it?

NIK