They all scream for more money but they seem to have extra on hand for their personal pet projects. This is in a town near me and I'm glad I don't live in town to see my tax money being wasted.
This photo is an artist's conception of a sign they plan to put over a major street. The bid is $347k with $197k to be paid from taxes. The rest is by donations. So, the city seems to have an extra $200k to blow. A couple days ago, they had an article about how jail prisoners were sleeping in an old trailer because the jail is full and they need to build a new one. It's shared between the city and county, I believe. Personally, I would rather see the crime problem dealt with before pretty things are purchased.

Generally what these numbnutz will do is build a big fancy sign with a big fancy LOW crossbar......making it impossible to get trucks carrying goods in and out.


They they will need to raise taxes to build a bypass.....

Who's brother in law gets that contract? That is the reason for the sign.

Graffiti challenge.

Isn't Mountain Home AFB near there? If so, the town gets federal money counting the AF personnel as county/city residents.

Donors will likely expect to be able to hang their advertising signs on it.

Waiting for the first base jumper to try that bridge.....

City I grew up in has been begging for a new jail for 10 years. Few years ago they built a parking lot that cost over $1 Million because cause its fancy and landscaped plus has a little stage in it so they call it an open theater. Only time of year they use it is their little festival they have. Rest of the year its about a 20 car parking lot.

When I moved to Meridian , ID. in 07' the locals were pist about the new 8 million dollar library that many people protested at city council meetings . Those people like most sitting in a gov't seat believe they tell the citizens what they want and need , appears they can do as they please .

Lol, here’s a boondoggle for you. 19 years to turn a profit.

https://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska...e02de6d-00ef-5603-aeb9-2e46731aa25c.html

Kearney Arch makes a profit for the first time since it opened in 2000.

In addition to its operational revenues, the arch receives annual subsidies of $150,000 from the Kearney Area Visitors Bureau and $75,000 from the City of Kearney. In the past, some of that money helped cover operational expenses, Hellreigel said, but now that the arch’s operational expenses have been considerably reduced, the Visitors Bureau and city subsidies are covering deferred maintenance.

In addition to the subsidies, the arch has benefited from money provided by the Archway Society, which is made up of friends and private donors to the facility. The society provided funds so the Archway could repay vendors and investors in 2013, when the attraction filed for bankruptcy.

Investors, who built the attraction across Interstate 80 for $60 million, and unsecured creditors accepted a $140,000 settlement, and ownership shifted to The Great Platte River Road Archway Foundation, which still owns the facility.

The City of Austin is so bad they send Reps to L.A., Portland and NYC to
figure out how to [bleep] off tax-payer bucks.

Prolly got some grant money too.

The very small town i live close to won a grant to rebuild/upgrade a playground.

Grant is for $100k.

Use it or lose it money.

WTF?


Another town nearby. Officially a village because of so few ppl. Won a grant to put in concrete sidewalks. I haven’t ever seen a person walking on it.

Not unlike Medford, Oregon floating a bond to build a fancy new library and then once constructed, realizing they didn't have the money to cover the annual operating costs.

Dave in WV, the base is about 45-60 miles away. It is about 10 miles out of Mt. Home. Enjoyed 3 1/2 years of my life there. Home of the knee high forest, a naked women behind every tree.

Their religion is politics. Their legacy is building monuments to themselves.

$200,000? That ain't nothing. Check this out.
And this.

And our city owned golf course.

Politicians like to build monuments to themselves.

my fair city is run by dedicated communists. The city is 80% registered dhimmicrats, and we have the ultra liberal University of Florida with 50K lefty students and thousands of faculty. They don't know the meaning of fiscal restraint. The mayor is heading out next week on a jaunt to our 'sister city' in Russia. Recently he went to a meeting in Hawaii. He does not travel alone. His entire family and a huge entourage go with him.
The city just raised our taxes 9%, and our electric rates 11%. There is no way to vote them out.

The AFB is 90 miles away. If the military people want to see the night lights, they go the opposite direction, to Boise. Certainly not to Twin Falls.

Rock Chuck, I remember the big decision back then. Do we go through Mt Home or take the Simplot gravel and cut 15-30 minutes off the drive? The town route was smoother, but the gravel meant less chance of getting gouged by Mt Home's council of 50.

I've been by Mtn Home a hundred times on I-84 but I've only been in town twice in 30 years. There just isn't anything there that I need to see. The closest I've been to downtown is the Walmart at exit 95.

Our little burg was destroyed by a "500 year flood" in 1997. County courthouse, Sheriff's office, County EMS, local PD, local Fire Dept, City Hall, County Road Dept. Immediately after the flood, FEMA offered 87.5% (7 to 1) matching funds to rebuild city and county infrastructure on the edge of town, outside of the 500 year flood plain. Local politicians refused. Wanted to "Save" downtown. eg: Support their own businesses and cronies.

The money spent out of pocket rebuilding a run down building into the new city hall could have built all new Infrastructure for ALL of the affected local government entities if they had paired it with the FEMA 7 to 1 matching funds.

Twenty years later, only one of the 7 or 8 multi generational family businesses that they were "worried about saving" is still in business in the downtown area. And the opportunity to improve their lot is lost...

You want to talk about wasting tax payers' dollars.

There are two towns located in the desert north of Phoenix named Carefree and Cave Creek. At one time (maybe still) their cop cars were lime green Lamborginis. There are a lot of celebrities that have homes there and they said that they needed the Lamborginis to cath the celebrities fast cars and issue speeding tickets.

Lynchburg va is on a traffic circle kick there installing traffic circles at major intersections because it’s a “wonderful thing” 80% of the population can’t comprehend a on ramp or a traffic light

I hate traffic circles!

The biggest waste is cities with 45 minute police response times and failing public schools spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build pro sports stadiums.

They justify it based on creating downtown entertainment spending--bars, restaurants, and the like. Mebbe so but if they just didn't build the stadiums, the people would simply go to different bars, restaurants, etc.

If they build a bigger jail they will just arrest more, and house more, it always seems to work that way

The brother in law getting the contract and the kickbacks to the politicians is the why.

Our home county just closed a public elementary school about 2 yr ago just had a recently built gym that the county owed over 100k on and sold the entire property for 75k