A review of information at both Treasury.gov and MarylandTaxes.gov reveals that Montgomery County politicians spent millions of future taxpayer dollars allocated to it via the so-called ‘American Rescue Plan Act’ (ARPA) on things that had nothing to do with Covid-19 disease mitigation or ‘resilience’. The final portion of this funding (via the Federal Government’s largesse through ARPA) is still now being released and then spent and then poof. Like dust in the wind, millions of dollars will have been shoved out in an unprecedented spending binge at the local and federal level that even left-leaning Vox.com admits made inflation worse for everyone.
Some of the spending went to things like the “Local PPE Production Fund” which maybe made a little sense, initially in the pandemic, and at least had to do with disease prevention or attempting to “slow the spread”. In May of 2020, MC Economic Development Corporation doled out $200,000 to various businesses. This was before ARPA passed in early 2021 (via a Democrat party-line vote in Congress). Per the Moco360 Media article:
Joyful Bath Co. in North Bethesda, which makes soaps, bath balms and other home cleaning products, received $7,500.
Owner Rochel Roland said in an interview on May 15 that her company is using the money to make an all-purpose surface cleaner made with a citric acid solution.
This was a waste, in hindsight, because Covid-19 doesn’t stay formed on surfaces too long and surface contact is not even close to the primary method of spread. But, again, at least this was an attempt at spending money on the actual root of the problem – transmission of a disease.
Montgomery County also spent a whopping $1.7 million with something called the “Black Physicians and Healthcare Network” (page 21). The Black Physicians and Healthcare Network claims that from July 2021 through June 2022 it vaccinated 1,330 people against SARS Covid-19 with presumably some of these funds. Conservatively, if even just 10% of the $1.7 million spent with this group was truly for vaccination outreach, marketing and then administering, then it cost taxpayers over $125 per vaccination of these 1,330 people in Montgomery County. The cost was likely much higher. For a vaccine offered for free and advertised literally everywhere – online, in stores, on all radio, on TV. People living in a cave in Montgomery County likely knew a free Covid-19 vaccine was available.
The problem is that millions also went to programs like “Therapeutic Recreation Services” (page 22 of this document). After initially closing up the schools and even the outdoor parks and basketball courts, the County government appears to have tried an about-face to “create a mindset that leads to healthy lifestyle via diet, sleep and exercise” (screen shot is below):
The document at Treasury.gov by Montgomery County claims 210 youth participated in this program (screen shot below) – and still no outcome measurement (translation: captured results) could really be provided here. This comes out to about $3,570 per youth participant over the timeframe provided. That’s a lot of nature walks and hiking.
The County then spent $2.75 million on “Arts Grants” and couldn’t really provide any KPIs to the US Treasury about what the outcomes were, at least through last year (screen capture below):
The Arts and Humanities Council does indeed support various arts “organizations” and local artists. Including one Ghandi Brigade Youth Media which awards money to anti-police ‘fine art and design’ entries in its local youth art competitions.
Finally, some amount of ARPA funds also went to the Montgomery County “Youth Sports Initiative”. What does this have to do with Covid-19?
Now that President Joe R Biden has signed off on ending the Covid-19 Pandemic National Emergency, at least at the Federal level, another budget-busting “ARPA” looks unlikely (for now). Still, MoCo is in spend spend spend mode as this federal largesse dries up.
And the true accounting for (and review of outcomes from) all these dubious programs continues.
Related posts:
Re-Branded as “Action Youth Media”, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (a MoCo Taxpayer Grantee) Still Appears to be Promoting Only Certain Types of “Activism” Through Art
DHHS admits to being clueless on COVID-19 Dashboard Data
City of Rockville Mixing Church and State….only for self-described liberal religions