Todd Portune re-enacts wasteful home loan program

In a reversal from their claimed “doomsday” budget-cutting after the defeat of the 2007 Super-Sized Jail tax, liberal democrat Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper have quietly re-enacted a wasteful home loan subsidy program.

In December of 2007, Commissioners Pepper and Portune declared “doomsday” for the County as voters rejected their $777 million sales tax increase. While not a single inmate has been released early, and no critical programs eliminated, taxpayers were fortunate to have the Commissioners axe Todd Portune’s pet program know as “HIP,” or Homeownership Improvement Program. This program called for the County “loaning” tax money interest free to local banks, who then re-loan the monies to homeowners at supposedly reduced interest rates for home repairs. The problem is that the inefficient program costs the County $60,000 per year in lost interest revenue, in return for meager gains in the housing stock.

In June, of this year, Portune slipped the program back in the 2008 budget and promises to try to keep it alive for 2009. Read about the reinstatement of the HIP program here.

This wasteful spending, of course, contradicts both Pepper’s and Portune’s claims of a tight county budget, and their claims that public safety is a top county priority. This is yet more irresponsible deficit spending by the liberal democrats running the County.