In an earlier article we talked about how the purpose of government is to protect the rights of the people, yet government employees seem to spend a lot of time chasing grants from other government agencies and figuring out ways to maximize tax revenue. The previous article contained examples of how school districts focus on government grants. This article will focus on the county.
On January 26, 2023, Ottawa County Commissioner Roger Bergman explained in an interview with Talk of the Town how county employees focus on grants. At the 11 minute 30 second mark he says, “That’s going to be a big learning curve for the new commissioners, because it takes a while, you know it took me a long time to understand, How does the court get funding? How does community mental health? How does the health department get funding? And then realize that a lot of their funding, in many cases, the majority of their funding, comes from Federal or State grants. And you know, that comes to us, because we take the time, we have people that write for those grants. And so, they’re very experienced, and they use the money very wisely for the benefit of our citizens. So, that’s a learning curve in itself.”
Roger Bergman is correct. The county is full of experts that spend their time identifying and applying for grants from other government agencies, and they are very good at it. In fact, the Ottawa County Public Defender’s Office, which was established in 2018, is almost entirely funded by grants.
One function of the Ottawa County Department of Strategic Impact is to help other departments and non-profits with statistical data and needs that help them get grants. During the January 24, 2023 County Commissioner Meeting, the Director of Strategic Impact, Paul Sachs, spoke about grants (around the 3 hour, 40 minute mark). Like Commissioner Bergman, he emphasized that the county must be prepared for when grant money is offered. The county must have the best team in place and be ready to go. He referenced several programs involving grants that involve his department.
The County Housing Commission, resurrected in 2020, is recognized as a public health authority so that they are qualified as an entity that can receive grants when they become available.
Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, BRA is active with EPA grants that help convert contaminated properties into properties that can generate tax revenue.
The MI Farmlink Program was started in Ottawa County and is likely to be implemented across the state. “Ottawa County received a Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.”
The Department of Strategic Impact is working with the Health Department to distribute ARPA Federal grant money to Community Action House.
A little later, around the 3 hour 50 minute mark, Director Sachs spoke about BEAD Grants (Broadband Equity Advancement Development). “Access for all is so important.” “There is money becoming available. It will be very competitive to get those grants. The one grant that the State of Michigan just rolled out recently, the Robin Program, has $250 million dollars available. Look at Allegan County’s project; they’re looking at $70 million dollars. For one county. It’s going to be competitive. You need to have the right plan in place, and the right partners, and we’re getting on that track. We’ve been at this for a while. [] All of the work we’re doing now is to help put us in a position to leverage those grant dollars.”
Mr. Sachs also addressed the decommissioning of the Port Sheldon Consumer’s Power Plant. One of the main concerns is how to replace the lost tax revenue.
This is not a debate about whether or not the programs being funded by these grants are worthwhile. It is quite possible that many are valuable. The questions are: what is the role of the government and should the government really be administering all of these programs? If these programs are valuable, wouldn’t it make more sense for charitable organizations and businesses to facilitate the initiatives without the government being involved?
Here is how the money is currently flowing…. It starts by State and Federal Governments taxing WE THE PEOPLE. State and Federal Governments create grant programs for which school districts, county governments, and non-profit organizations can apply. The grants focus on initiatives big governments would like to implement and ALWAYS have strings attached. The grants are awarded by big government to local governments. The beneficiaries of the grants are current employees of school districts, county government employees, and the entities (non-profits and business) the school districts and counties decide to hire. These beneficiaries in turn, donate money back to the political campaigns of politicians who create the grants and fund the grants. This very effectively removes the voice and drains the pocketbooks of WE THE PEOPLE.
Grant money is not free. It just comes from the taxpayers through different channels that remove the input of citizens and offers more opportunity for waste and abuse. The purpose of government is to protect the rights of the people. We must stand together and continue to realign Ottawa County with the Constitution.