Free Money?

I found out that our lovely City Council has once again lost it's flipping mind.

It seems the council has authorized the mayor and the city manager to apply for a more than 600,000 dollar grant to extend the day care facilities at the community center.

Like nearly every grant the city has gone after in the last few years, this will additionally obligate the tax payers to some 200,000 or more in additional taxes to provide the matching funds to complete the project.

Aside from the tax burden, the city is using your money to compete against another business here in town. it is also using tax monies from townspeople to subsidize operations for the benefit on non-city residents.

According to the City Manager, we need to do this because it is free money. Shouldn't the city try to help profit generating (and therefore tax paying) businesses over the non-profit community center that already receives more than 100,000 from the city coffers?

If your property taxes go up to cover the part that isn't free money, is it free to you, or is it free to him.

What do you think?