EDITORIAL: Town of Grandview proves its conservative credentials
If city leaders in the Johnson County town of Grandview are basing their stand on principle, not politics, they rate public praise in approving a resolution rejecting a $492,000 earmark to build a new water tower that a previous town council asked U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards to help fund.
Yes, the current council’s resolution is damning, including its strong condemnation of “irresponsible pork-barrel politics” and its statement that the city of Grandview “does not believe such funding is ethical or constitutional.”
We certainly agree with much of the resolution, even though it does seem to take an unfair swipe at Edwards. (The previous mayor praised Edwards for assisting a town “forced to live with a very tight budget.”) We also question the rush by congressional candidate Rob Curnock in issuing a somewhat misleading press release insisting Edwards had funneled unsolicited earmark money to the city for its water tower project.
The truth: Grandview requested funding help under one set of leaders, rejected it under another set of leaders. But even the current mayor doesn’t blame Edwards.
“I do not believe Congressman Edwards acted in any way unethically,” Grandview Mayor Travis Buck told Trib political reporter Michael Shapiro. “He was simply doing what a previous council had asked him to do: Get money for a water tower.”
Plus, there’s some indication the city didn’t quite get its dander up until it realized that the $492,000 earmark for the new water tower required $225,000 from other sources for related infrastructure.
Now the town of 1,600 is exploring other options for providing water to an area of town where it expects growth.
Whatever the circumstances, more cities should consider Grandview’s example and question the usual, knee-jerk scramble to always seek federal funding — particularly through earmarks — at a time when more and more Americans are worried about long-term debt and a projected budget deficit of about $1.6 trillion. The solution may start at home with local leaders who just say no.
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