Mayor shouldn’t beg

Pamela King

Published Saturday, June 20, 2009

I would like to address the Mayor of Suffolk, Linda Johnson and the issue of fiscal responsibility.

I accidentally came across an article relaying Ms. Johnson begging for federal funding from J. Randy Forbes for a brush fire truck. First, let me state that the need for fire equipment goes beyond discussion. However, the fact that the current truck is 12 years old only shows the lack of city management and planning to provide the needed equipment.

Then to go and beg for federal funding to buy another truck is so embarrassing from a taxpayer’s point of view. Does the city council not understand that federal funding from “the government” IS our tax dollars? The federal government is not a producer of any product except spending; it is not autonomous and cannot function without the tax payer’s deposit. The city government mentality that the federal government is our sugar daddy or nanny at the local level is despicable, disheartening and just plain embarrassing. People in Utah, Illinois, Louisiana and the other 46 states beyond Virginia should not be asked or required to pay for a fire truck in Suffolk, VA.

It may be tradition and it may be local fodder to have peanut festivals or shrimp fests or whatever kind of fest you want to call it, but in today’s economic situation where the federal government and the current administration are spending out of control — festivals are not needed or necessary. If the peanut festival costs $50,000 and a fire truck is

$182,000 — then quit having a festival for four years to pay for the truck.

There have been numerous solutions proffered to raise the funding for the truck — yet still the mayor and council steam ahead irresponsibly chasing federal funding.

We should all step back and ask ourselves what the governments we have in place are doing and why they are so out of control. Two thoughts come to mind as I ponder the common sense of economics and fiscal responsibility:

• There is nothing FREE - someone is or has paid for it.

• The sins of the fathers are passed to the 3rd and 4th generations......our grandchildren and great grandchildren will not be heralding our names for the financial disgrace these political representatives and those who support them have left behind.

I am embarrassed and disgusted by every level of representative we have in the once great state of Virginia.

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