With the opening of the new $4.3 million "Casa Kitchen" to help feed seniors, the city of Albuquerque provided a breath of fresh air when it comes to government spending priorities. While many debate the spending on highway interchanges, river tourist development, and building new stadiums in the midst of economic misery, the new city run kitchen demonstrates where spending priorities should be when it comes to using local tax dollars in tough times.
According to Casa Food Supervisor Bennie Aragon and Jorga Armijo-Brasher of Albuquerque Senior Affairs, the senior population in Albuquerque is expected to increase 46% over the next 10 years. The new kitchen will accomodate the expected growth in seniors and then some. Presently, the kitchen provides meals for about 750 home bound seniors, eight senior centers, and 20 meal sites throughout the city.
With the tightening budgets, gridlock in Washington, and state funds being wasted on go-nowhere-projects in Santa Fe, the local project bucks the trend of what Thomas Jefferson once said was the reason why money and power should not be centralized in Washington D.C.: it would result in the demise of the republic. This is because local money spent by local officials is the most effective use of money to address local needs.
Jefferson explained his thinking by saying that when money is misspent in Washington, it adversely impacts the whole nation, but when it is misspent locally, it only hurts one of thousands of local communities, but the nation still remains strong. Perhaps if Washington stayed out of being involved in activities not specifically enumerated by the U.S. Constitution, there would be much more local money and freedom available to local governments to spend money on things that they determine are needed like kitchens to feed the elderly and services to help poor families.
Dr. Michael Williams writes columns as a national Conservative Examiner and as a local Albuquerque Family Examiner. You can follow him on Twitter: @drmlwilliams or @classicon00. He can be reached by email at: contact@selahmountain.com. If you would like a free subscription to this column click on the subscribe button on this page. Finally, please share your well thought out perspectives on the issue by commenting below.
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