Welcome To The Citizens Against Government Waste Guilford County N.C. Edition : Dump The N.C. Metropolitan Organization

Triadwatch is a policy wonk and enjoys looking through the City of Greensboro's Council agenda with attachments that comes out every friday before a council meeting on the next tuesday calender. At the end of the huge attachment there is a section where you will see disbursements made by the city treasurer .

There is a section called "vouchers issued against budget authorization for equipment and supplies contracts"

Here are a few of the organizations who get paid through these vouchers and if you look above at what this is targeted please enlighten me on how these organizations are equipment or supplies contracts.

N.C. Metropolitan Coalition Membership Fee, $12,980
East Market Street Development Corporation 4th quarter installment, $10,000
Greensboro Sports Commission 4th quarter installment, $18,750

None of these payments above are any close to being equipment or supplies.

Let's take a closer look at the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition. The first thing that sticks out is that they left out in the agenda 'Mayors" that this is a lobbyist group for  the major metropolitan cities all around the state under the umbrella of the N.C. League of Municipalities which is totally paid for by your tax dollars.

Here is the mission statement of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition

"  The North Carolina Metropolitan Mayors Coalition, a group of mayors committed to the growth of North Carolina’s cities, deals with national and state issues affecting local governments. Founded in 2001, the coalition promotes the interchange of ideas and experiences among municipal officials for the continued development of urban areas. In addition, the Coalition works with state officials to encourage the expansion of urban areas as livable environmentally sound and economically viable."

The link to their website CLICKHERE

This is totally a complete waste of $12,980 to give to this organization when it is a part of the North Carolina League of Municipalities where each municipality gives taxpayer money to lobby for taxpayer funded money.

When we have budgets cuts all over the spectrum on basic needs to people in the communities and then to just pay out $12,980 to a lobbyist organization made up of mayors is what we could call Citizens Against Government Waste Guilford County Edition.

Just remember that your tax money goes into these groups and we haven't even talked about some who are affiliated with the NC League of Municipalities like the NC Assoc. of County Commissioners, NC Assoc. of County Clerks, NC Association of Municipal Attorney,NC City and County Management Association,Carolinas Association of Governmental Purchasing,NC Chapter - American Public Works Association,NC Government Finance Officers Association,NC Local Government Budget Association,North Carolina Association of Local Governmental Employee Safety Officials,North Carolina Association of Municipal Electric Systems,North Carolina Association of Resort Towns and Convention Cities,and Organization of Municipal Personnel Officers.

Who do you think pays for these groups ?  YOU

It is a great time for all cities all over this state to assess their affiliation with these local , state and national organizations that are taxpayer funded lobbying organizations. Budgets are tight and this should be a no brainer on deleting this money from the budget. Time to make the hard decisions but it looks like the City of Greensboro will be paying Mayor Knight $12,980 to be a member of this tax payer funded lobbying organization.