You know it is funny. No, it’s not funny at all — it’s pathetic. Here we go about spending money that the state and local governments don’t have to ‘make things beautiful.”

We spend money on roads — that is needed. We have infrastructure that is owned by private corporations — and spending public funds on that is dead wrong. We spend city, county, state money on “beatification projects” that are supposed to be the responsibility of the landlord of the business, not the local, county or state government. 

For such “projects,” we get state money. Well, whose money is it? It’s the taxpayers.

Why are we supporting private companies? It’s no wonder we don’t have enough money for the schools.

No wonder our kids’ education is virtually in the toilet; no wonder we don’t have enough money for police and fire protection.

We spend it on project that should be funded by the property owners, not the taxpayers.

We build “white elephants” like this new hospital with 40 less beds than we have now, and Rome Free Academy which could have been money better spend by refurbishing the “old” RFA.

The “new hospital” in Utica displaced businesses in the name of “progress” for a private concern, the Mohawk Valley Health System.

I ask “what progress” when you come up with less than you have before for much more money. And again, whose money it is? It’s our tax dollars.

— Walter E. Beverly III, Rome