Saddling up the COVID gift horse

Today’s question: How are pickleball and COVID-19 related?

Answer: They’re not.

Caveat: Unless you’re the government.

In the “do we ever stop and think” category comes the American Rescue Plan Act and Citrus County.​

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ARPA is commonly known as the COVID-19 stimulus. Most of us received at least one check from Uncle Sam to stimulate our buying habits while the world was crawling around during the pandemic.

Local governments received checks as well. Theirs was a little bigger than mine.

Citrus County is sitting on $29 million in ARPA funds. At Tuesday’s board meeting, commissioners are expected to approve a spending list.

There isn’t a dime for anyone actually affected by the pandemic, though millions were already spent from other federal sources in helping businesses and individuals. So it’s not like the Citrus County government is hoarding ARPA money at the expense of its citizens.

It’s still free money.

Commissioners rarely use that term, but anytime the county has an influx of money from an unexpected source, that’s essentially what we’re talking about. Unbudgeted money. The county went out for a stroll and picked up a million-dollar bill off the sidewalk.

While they are loath to look at stimulus money as free, commissioners don’t seem to have the same intensity on the priorities as they do the regular budget. How else to explain such an assortment of “stimulus” projects included in the ARPA list:

— $2.9 million for new offices of the County Commission and to renovate its current offices for the judiciary. While commissioners have approved this concept, I don’t recall a vote. The idea is to make room in the Courthouse for judges and move commissioners to the old Coke building or somewhere else.

— $284,000 for a space-needs study.

— $100,000 for a five-year budget analysis.

— $488,000 for pickleball and tennis courts in Beverly Hills.

— $18 million in water/sewer projects. This probably makes the most sense. Adding to the infrastructure is a tremendous economic investment for any community. The feds want to help us with that, let them.

I looked up what these funds can be used for, and the range is fairly wide. Though as the county finance director specifically pointed out, they CANNOT be spent on road resurfacing. 

There are various ways to look at big-dollar giveaways, but I see it like this: The county has wants and needs, there’s a big check in the bank collecting dust, some of that money can be spent on our wants and needs, so go for it.

Still…there isn’t a single expenditure on that list that anyone would think, “Oh yeah, COVID-19 did that.” I’m not sure a logical person could find a nexus between any of these projects and the pandemic.

So, how do they end up on the list? The water/sewer projects clearly belong there. As for the others, I’m not in on the conversation, but it’s not a stretch to suggest there isn’t much more discussion than, “Hey, we can use ARPA money for that!”

Look. Few people are questioning the ARPA spending priorities. Commissioner Jeff Kinnard brought it up earlier this month, but no one is beating down the Courthouse doors demanding help for their COVID-19 layoff from four years ago.

As a government geek, I’m not thrilled with the lack of definitive policy driving these decisions. I haven’t a clue how this list was created and whether more went into the planning than just grabbing projects that needed money.

But as realists, we should approve the list and move on with our lives. There’s a public purpose for all this stuff, and it is rather expensive. That’s $29 million we don’t need to grab from the locals.

Gift horse? Giddyup.

— Full government Tuesday. The Library Advisory Board should be lively at 8 a.m. at the Lecanto Government Building and then the County Commission at 1 p.m. at the Courthouse. Come on down and participate in local government. Plenty is happening.

Enjoy this beautiful day, friends.

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