Wasteful, duplicative, and foolish. All three words could be used to describe the situation in downtown Pensacola, where the feds plan to spend $31 million in taxpayer funds to fix a $10 million courthouse problem.
Watchdog.org reports:
The U.S. General Services Administration has a $31 million plan to fix a $10 million federal courthouse in downtown Pensacola plagued from the start with toxic mold.
The GSA is paying $4.7 million in rent for tenants who have for more than a year been farmed out to other federal buildings and $6.25 million for their relocation.
Costs for the relocation while the government tries to reclaim its unusable building are expected to rise to $20 million over the next five years.
“This is a situation where the facility itself has had problems from the very beginning. Poor design problem, poor construction, and GSA, unfortunately, has been trying to sweep the problem under the rug,” said U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican whose district encompasses Pensacola.
“Incredibly, GSA has never answered to anyone, much less its tenants, for its failure to properly address, and competently resolve, the situation,” wrote the court’s Chief Judge M. Casey Rodgers in a letter to the Pubic Buildings Service, a division of GSA.
The U.S. Courthouse for the Northern District of Florida was built in 1997, under a construction-lease arrangement. A private developer, known then as the Keating Corporation, constructed the $10 million building on land owned by the City of Pensacola.
If the feds were forced to balance their budget every year, this kind of waste wouldn't happen.
Problem is, they'll never impose that kind of requirement on themselves. It's up to the American people to fix this country's fiscal woes, and a Convention of States is the tool to do it.
An Article V Convention of States is called by the states at the request of their constituents for the purpose of limiting the power of the federal government, mandating term limits for federal officials, and imposing fiscal restraints on Congress (like a balanced budget).
It's by far the best solution to the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington, D.C., and the movement is picking up steam all across the country.
