It seems to me that most government employees view grants as free money and do everything in their power to win grant awards. But, grants are not free. They are funded through taxation of the citizenry and are then redistributed by higher level government agencies like candy.
Think of grants this way. Picture a family consisting of three adult children and a father. The father collects 50% of the income his children earn. Then the father tells his children that the one who comes up with the best plan to build a computer data storage facility will win all of the money collected, less a small management fee. It doesn’t matter whether the children want or need a computer data storage facility. The father decides both how the money will be spent and how the money will be distributed.
That money is a grant.
The difference when it comes to the citizens of Ottawa County is that the federal and state governments typically collect the taxes. Then they award grants to the counties, schools, or non-profits that create the best plans for projects that state and federal government officials favor in a given year. Just like in the case of the family above, it does not matter whether the taxpayers need or want these projects.
Think of the time and effort the adult children in the above analogy spent preparing their plans. Two of them did not receive any money. When it comes to grants, the winners are clearly the people who are the best at creating plans, or favored by those awarding the grants.
School district and county employees involved in applying for grants seem so focused on winning grants, that they forget the grant money they are chasing comes from the citizens themselves. When there is grant money available, that means that the citizens were taxed. It is the job of the government to act in the best interest of the people. Wouldn’t it be better to lower state and federal taxes which would enable local governments to collect taxes if they have a need for a project? This would eliminate all the time spent writing and applying for grant proposals. Plus, it would make local governments more independent and give them a greater voice in determining what is important for their communities.
The following examples shows how many government employees view grants as free money, and how much time and effort is wasted chasing grants. On Jan. 26, 2023, Ottawa County Commissioner Roger Bergman explained in an interview with Talk of the Town how county employees focus on grants. “And you know, that (funding) comes to us,” he said, “because we take the time. We have people that write for those grants.” During the Jan. 24, 2023 Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, Director of Strategic Impact Paul Sachs emphasized that the county must be prepared when grant money is offered. He explained the county must have the best team in place and ready to go. At the Feb. 13, 2023 Jenison school board meeting, Treasurer Chris Reed, PhD, commended the administrators for their ability to win grants, emphasizing that their applications take a lot of work and skill to win. During the Feb. 16, 2023 Ottawa County Board of Commissioners meeting, a citizen asked, “Did you consider the time and effort that goes into writing grant applications?”
In the family analogy above, the two winners are clearly the father who runs the racket and the child who wins the money. This assumes that the adult child who received the grant actually had a desire to build a computer data storage facility or found a way to reap a large profit for himself. The losers are the other two adult children who expended time and effort above their normal workload only to be left with nothing. Why do the adult children put up with this? In real life, why do taxpayers and losing school districts and counties put up with this?
When it comes to government grants, the amount of money flowing in this manner is too massive to track or comprehend. Losing school districts do not necessarily recognize the fact that they receive less money. The money, after all, was taken by taxation from the school district’s residents, not from the school district itself. The grants go to entities whose teams were most skilled at playing the bureaucratic game of writing grant applications. Ottawa County wins a lot of grants. If citizens of Ottawa County truly crave fairness, they should lead the way in putting an end to this parasitic process.