City Gouges Taxpayers – Again

City Hall has a new scheme for spending Other People’s Money. City officials call it charity. The new twist on “let us entertain you with your own money” is to give so-called proceeds to charity.

As usual, there’s a catch. There are no proceeds.

Are the administrative costs and other expenses ever accounted for? As a huge part of the overhead, highly compensated top administrators and other employees with benefits are planning and overseeing the activities. City facilities are used without charge, and city contractors print literature, promote the event, set up, clean up, direct traffic, provide security and so on.

The cover of charity helps sustain the city’s bloated bureaucracy by keeping employees on the payroll who don’t have real jobs. And doesn’t the act of giving money away sound so much better than the usual excuses for wasting it?

Jumping on the bandwagon of donating “proceeds” to a charity is the city’s Character Committee. As a government entity, this committee has no legitimate function, reason to exist or claim to tax dollars. Councilwoman Trish Kelley advocated its formation by saying no tax dollars would be involved. A city employee reported soon after the committee’s inception that “an enormous amount of staff time is sucked up” by its activities. In addition to absorbing full-time city employees, the Character Committee has thrown parties for itself, including catered dinners.

City Hall is on track to spend $2.4 million more than it takes in this fiscal year. With no plan for economic development, the city has failed to attract businesses or grow the sales tax base. With dwindling revenue, city employees increasingly have focused on activities that are neither essential nor appropriate – now giving away imaginary profits.

The Constitution does not empower the government to use taxpayer funds for charity. America’s founders clearly left charity to citizens.

Perhaps the occupants of City Hall think no one would dare criticize them for participating in a good cause. However, it’s not their job. And while they’re trying to become unassailable by donating Other People’s Money, they’re failing to do the real job of providing essential public services.