County Council prepares to give more corporate welfare to Planned Parenthood
County government should focus limited financial resources on essential county services and legally mandated responsibilities, not subsidizing private charities.
As in years past, the Monroe County Council will be giving grants to social service organizations, a program that started in 2008 and got coverage from the Wall Street Journal. The schedule was posted by Christian Citizens for Life last month. The county council has had problems with transparency before, so I appreciate that they have been very open about the process this year, especially more than three months in advance of the scheduled vote. Here is the schedule:
♣ - Grant Kick-Off Meeting -- July 29th at 5:00 PM
♣ - Application Open to Public -- July 30th
♣ - Application Submission Deadline -- September 15th at 12:00 PM
♣ - Applicant Presentation to Committee -- October 7th at 5:00 PM
♣ - Applicant Recommendation to Council -- October 28th at 5:00 PM
Since the application deadline is not until September, we do not yet know what Planned Parenthood will apply for, although it is a safe bet that it will be similar to what they applied for when they got $7,500 from the city council this year. A better question is this: Should county government have a social services fund at all?
No. Neither county government nor city government should be in the business of funding private social service agencies. The councilors can donate their own money or encourage people to donate to the charities of their choice, but when elected officials vote to distribute public funds to charitable organizations, that is an inherently political decision. Councilors may object that a committee makes recommendations based on "objective criteria," but votes by elected officials are always political.
This is especially important as the county council is facing a shortfall for funding the construction of a new jail mandated by a court decision. An extra six figures every year would be a significant help toward that goal. Imagine of they had put that money toward a new jail every year since 2008. We would be approaching two million dollars set aside for the court-mandated construction.
The best option would be to take a pro-choice path from this point forward: Abolish the social services fund altogether, direct the money to essential county government responsibilities like a new jail, and give all of us freedom of choice in which charitable organizations we support. We are a very liberal, generous community. Charitable organizations should be able to operate their missions without an annual grant from city and county government.