Imagine your roof was leaking, the driveway was busted up, the porch was caving in and the faucets dripped. Imagine sitting down with the family and budgeting some fixes. Serious fixes. Expensive fixes. Fixes that are going to take a long time to pay off.
Would now be the time to buy a new car?
Local example No. 1,579 that government doesn't operate like a household: The board of the Pulaski County Special School District is seriously considering issuing bonuses for employees, upwards of $2,500 apiece. At a cost of $5.88 million. That's the top-end option before the board members now.
But the district is in the middle of building a new high school and middle school, and expanding Sylvan Hills. And those projects are not without controversy. Didn't the paper just report that the new Mills High School and Robinson Middle were going to cost $20 million more than the $80 million budgeted? And aren't the courts involved? So as to make those construction costs even more expensive?
Is now the right time to hand out millions in bonuses? Or would it be better to finish all this construction first, and see how much those schools are really going to cost? And perhaps make a decision on employee bonuses once the checks are written for bricks, furniture and sewer systems?
It shouldn't need to be said, but government money doesn't come out of thin air. We the People provide it. Our betters should remember that more often.
Editorial on 11/17/2017