Printed in the Daily Herald March 16, 2009.

As a Schaumburg resident, I am alarmed that our local leaders find no problem partaking in the debt-financed “stimulus” spending craze. According to StimulusWatch.org, Schaumburg’s Mayor Al Larson has made $8.8 Million in requests for “shovel ready” projects to be included in the stimulus expenditures.

Most of Mayor Larson’s requests are wasteful pork-barrel spending. For example:

• $2.1 Million for the creation of new bike paths. When economic times are tough, we should be cutting non-essential recreational projects instead of expanding them.

• $3.15 Million for various water and sewer projects. Wasn’t the 45% increase in water & sewer rates since 2004 supposed to cover the costs of these projects?

• $1.2 million for an LED street light retrofit. How can this stimulate the economy now if a recent DOE study found it would take between 11 and 25 years to recoup the start-up costs of the program?

• $200,000 for Integrated Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR).  A vendor of ALPR advertised that police “can use ALPR to maximize revenue from collection of unpaid parking tickets, licenses and permits.” Shouldn’t government be looking to relieve tax burdens instead of finding more ways to squeeze us?

• $1.84 for runway resurfacing and energy retrofits and the Schaumburg Airport. Mayor Al Larson previously claimed that “revenues from fuel sales, hangar rentals and business leases will more than offset operating costs” at the Schaumburg Airport. He was wrong, and since then, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars have been sunk into the project. Why not sell the airport and reduce taxes instead?

I am tired of reckless politicians who don’t seem to care about the vast amounts of debt we are accumulating. Our lack of fiscal responsibility today will cost our future generations dearly. Hopefully, Mayor Larson rethinks these wasteful projects.

Vote on the merits of the proposed stimulus projects for Schaumburg below.
http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_city/Schaumburg/IL

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