It's Your Money

Each year, the City of Massillon receives CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. This money comes from our federal tax dollars.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development web site, CDBG money "works to ensure decent community housing" and is used "to provide services to the most vulnerable in our communities."

Apparently, among "the most vulnerable" in our community are hotel developers, because our mayor for life allocated $211,000 dollars of our CDBG money last year to pay the mortgage for the privately owned Hampton Inn hotel.

And he will be allocating even more of our tax dollars in 2011 to pay the mortgage for the Hampton Inn.

We are on the hook for the mortgage.

We will be paying the mortgage until 2019, when we will then owe a crippling $984,000 dollar balloon payment.

Councilman Tony Townsend plans on introducing legislation to set up a program of sidewalk, curb and gutter repair in our fair city.

If a resident follows the proper procedures, the city will pay half the cost of fixing the sidewalk, curb, and gutter.

It's a good idea. Many of the sidewalks and curbing in Massillon are in horrible disrepair.

The City set aside $20,00 for this project from the 2010 CDBG budget.

This amount is less than 1/10th the amount being spent for the hotel mortgage.

Less than one tenth.

$211,000 for a private developer's hotel mortgage.

$20,000 to repair crumbing sidewalks and curbs.

It's your money.