A look at the City Budget

When times are good there is less concern about how we are spending our money. This is true personally, in business and in our government. I have received a copy of the proposed city budget and was particularly interested in the proposed funding of numerous non-profit organizations. I personally don’t believe that non-profits should receive any money from the government. The strings attached from government funding will take a good non-profit organization off mission. I also believe that personal giving and accountability between the non-profit organization and the donor is best for the organization. But, we know that federal, state and local governments have been giving money to non-profit organizations for years. The non-profit organizations receiving the funding have become dependent on the support. It reminds me of our failed welfare system where generations of people were enslaved to poverty because of their dependency on the government.

Another troubling issue with the government supporting non-profit organization is political in nature. If your non-profit organization is receiving funding from the government it then politicizes your organization. You will champion and campaign for the elected officials that are responsible for feeding your organization. This is also why I oppose churches promoting political candidates. It takes the church off its’ mission and opens the door for pandering politicians. The organization that will receive the most funding, (nearly $400,000), is Primavera Foundation. Of course the former Executive Director of Primavera is Councilwoman Uhlich. I don’t know how much influence she had on the funding, but it illustrates the politicizing of organizations. When organizations get off mission, the principles run for political office! They know how to get their bread buttered, and tax dollars are easier to procure than individual donations.

The other thing that jumps out in the budget is how non-profit organizations will tailor their requests in a way to position themselves for a grant. It may be completely off their mission, but to get the money it is imperative that they play to what the government is giving to. A case in point is 3 gifts to Wingspan. Wingspan is a gay, bi, trans sexual organization that is really a promoter of the homosexual lifestyle. I first became acquainted with them several years ago when they were running ads in middle school newspapers to reach out to “gay” students. Having been in advertising most of my life, these ads were really about recruiting kids to the homosexual lifestyle. Wingspan is receiving money for the Eon Youth Program, Anti-violence project and something called “growing up proud and strong”. They are receiving nearly $100,000 of your tax dollars. I seem to recall that they are housed in a government building for something like $1 per year. Do you think it is a good idea that our tax dollars are used to promote the gay lifestyle? Certainly they have the freedom to do that on their own, but not with my money.