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Monday, August 28, 2006

Nevermind

Looks like the $200,000 for Grand Forks nonprofits has been saved by the nonprofit hero of the hour: Council member Eliot Glassheim. They all applauded him after the meeting.

Eliot seemed like he was destined by the lone dissenting vote on this one at the last few meetings when he was the only council member on the nonprofits' side. Council President Hal Gershman's idea of spending the $200,000 on streets and sewers in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods was pretty popular.

This would help poorer homeowners with special assessments, though, obviously, it would not help the even poorer people who depend on the nonprofits for aid.

Anyway, Eliot said he found a way to make everybody's dreams come true. The nonprofits would get to keep their money and Hal would get his special assessment subsidy.

Actually, Eliot said it was finance director John Schmisek whose monetary mojo saved the day. John mentioned some rainy day money in the infrastructure fund that nobody remembered. It looks like there's enough for a $200,000 special assessment subsidy fund, which means the nonprofit money isn't needed.

I bet the nonprofits wished they didn't have to kick and scream for this to come about.

By the way, the infrastructure fund is that 30 percent of the 1-cent city sales tax used for major road projects. Eliot said there's some extra after scheduled projects are paid for.

Update 9 a.m., 8/29/06: Council member Curt Kreun set me straight today about who it was that really pushed for that $200,000 cut. It wasn't Hal, he said, but him. Hal's contribution was the suggestion that nonprofits consolidate to save money. But I gave him credit for both pieces because he was the one who introduced both before the council.

Curt said his rationale for seeking street and sewer funding for lower income homeowners was that the infrastructure in these neighborhoods needed repair but people couldn't afford it so they kept protesting it out.

That's a slightly different dynamic because the poor homeowners aren't being compelled to pay crippling special assessments that would force them out of their homes.

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