“D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week’s inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.
Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years — money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.
But that grant money is earmarked for other security needs, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said in a Dec. 27 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Williams’s office released the letter yesterday.”
Ok. I am a little puzzled by this. Something just feels wrong here.
DC is taxed without voting representation, what the Revolutionary War was fought over, in part. (It flows from the fact that the city was originally intended only as a place of work.) Much of the most valuable land in DC is National Park land. If I understand correctly, this means that DC can’t get any tax revenues from business done on that land. This pisses people off because it’s a poor city overall. The public schools are often frightening, for example. It’s not surprising to me that when it comes to paying for something, it’s their problem. When it comes to making money from something, it’s park land, etc.
Click on the headline of the post and it will take you to the story.
Where did you read this? I want to add it to my blog, but I like to source my info. This is too important not to share with people.