Dear Editor,
Today, the South Carolina House of Representatives is debating a bill that authorizes some $1.8 billion in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
H. 4408 is the product of a legislative committee that recommended the money be spent on interstate highways, water and sewer projects, broadband service, and buying out private property in flood plains.
Proponents call these “transformative,” particularly in impoverished areas of our state.
But it’s important to take a step back and consider the source of these funds.
Federal funding comes primarily from three sources: taxes, debt, and printing new money. Of these, the third is the most expensive way to fund government projects. Of these, the third is the most morally objectionable, because it actually spends the futures of our children and grandchildren.
I support funding infrastructure of all types – roads, water, and even broadband – and am keenly aware of how sorely resources are needed in rural and impoverished areas of our state.
But South Carolina has the resources to meet these needs already, and I have been an advocate through the years of increasing local funding by the state to meet needs such as these, and to decrease unnecessary state spending in many other areas.
These federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act are tainted.
We would (I should think) have a problem spending the proceeds from any illicit source such as sex trafficking of minors, gun running, or illegal drugs.
We should view mortgaging the futures of generations to come in the same light.
It may be legal, but it is not moral.
The ends do not justify the means.
Sincerely,
Jonathon Hill
S.C. House District 8
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BANNER VIA: Jonathon Hill
