By Junior on 01-13-10
This is the way Senate Republicans wanted it. A system that lacked accountability to the taxpayers and what we got was ‘rubber tiled’ tennis courts.
Remember that it was reported on Dec. 28th and the Governor said this was not a good use of funds as reported on Dec. 29th. All session he battled with the Senate Republicans to have a line-itemized detailed list, but instead they put in some language that allowed city and county commissioners to act like kids at a candy story. That language required the Department of Commerce to spend the money on any project the fit into the Republican bill.
That is exactly the way Republicans wanted it as Story said, “he thinks lawmakers did it right by not doling out the money to specific city projects.” “Also we were concerned that if the governor didn’t like someone’s projects, he would go through and line-item veto it.”http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_07d9d5f2-f4d6-11de-809d-001cc4c002e0.html
You can guarantee the Governor would have vetoed ‘rubber-tiled’ tennis courts just like he vetoed other stimulus money. But then again Senate President Story, Dan McGee, and Esp wanted to spend that money too. The best part of this op-ed is the second paragraph title ‘Too much in savings account.’ http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/article_1534112f-cc88-58e5-bbe7-d8aa98633368.html
Just because you have a big chocolate cake in front of you, it doesn’t mean you should eat all of it.
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.