Slopping the hogs in Marietta

One thing to remember about these "shovel ready" projects (funded by Charlie Wilson's bad check) is that they are low priority projects. High priority projects have been completed or funded already. These are the 2nd string projects.

Here is a story from the Marietta Register about some of the pork Mayor Mullens wants to fund with Congressman Wilson's funny money:

"We've been working for several weeks in anticipation of this to get organized and have advanced prep on how these things will work through the system," Mullen said." See previous post: Hogs to slop : Democrats to tax money.

Apparently this "stimulus" bill is a government "stimulus" bill. I can't see where it will create any private sector jobs, just more government spending on government wish lists for government employees....government buildings....government properties....you get the picture. More government.

If they really wanted to create jobs Mr Wilson would have tried to cut income taxes, corporate income taxes, capital gains taxes, death taxes. This gets money into the private economy and creates real jobs.

Wasting money on an old building that needs removed and replaced with private property does not create jobs.

• "The city of Marietta has submitted another $1.6 million request for the Armory Square Project, with $500,000 requested to complete energy efficiency upgrades to the Front Street building and another $1.1 million requested to construct a new inter-modal passenger loading zone for bus access and handicap accessibility.
  "The Armory Square project is at $1.8 million right now, and that's short of everything we need to do," Mullen said."

Making city owned buildings more "energy efficient" does not create private sector jobs.

• "The city of Marietta is looking at another $3 million request to upgrade the energy efficiency of other city-owned facilities. "We're in the middle of our energy audit with Swiss Valley Associates so those projects will also be in play," Mullen said."

Paying for a Wi-Fi project does not create private sector jobs...maybe a couple of short term...hang a transmitter in a tree type of jobs, but not long term jobs.

• "Mullen said the city is requesting $425,000 to further develop a Wi-Fi project." "We're trying to build the backbone to have a WAN with a lot of bandwidth capacity and distribute that bandwidth to various sites. We see our initiative as a hub and spoke concept. We build this backbone and use it to extend it out to other areas in the county," Mullen said.

Do you know what a "historic" fence is? It's very expensive. But, who cares, it's just money cashed from a bad check:

• "Finally, the city has requested $160,000 in stimulus funding to restore the historic fence at Mound Cemetery, Mullen said. ""We know there is money out there for historic preservation and that cemetery is one of our city's most significant historic sites," Mullen said."" Maybe, but putting a fence up does not create jobs or help the private sector created jobs.

All of these items might be good things to do, but if there is no money, why would we write a bad check to do them? Didn't free credit start our problems, yet we're using free credit to try to correct the problem. Seems counterintuitive.

One question for Congressman Wilson, did you even read this bill before you voted for it?