Homeowners in Cartersville are going to be seeing a rate increase after the city council voted to raise the electricity rate for city utilities. Staff at the meeting cited increased operating costs and requested a general increase across all rates. Admittedly, costs are increasing across the world with record-breaking month-by-month inflation. It isn’t too far-fetched to point towards operating costs to justify an increase in electricity rates. Though, it should be noted that all public services operated by the government are forced monopolies set up by force of the state.
Regardless, with the way things are currently set up, money has to come from somewhere. Surely, taxpayer dollars are being appropriated in a fiscally responsible manner to cover the costs of public services. The Cartersville City Council obviously did their due diligence to best avoid raising rates.
The agenda item following the rate increase was for a purchasing request to buy furniture for the electricity department. Funds for the purchase were to come from the electricity revenue account.
Okay, odd choice to choose to buy new furniture for the electricity department when funds are low. But, surely the furniture was absolutely necessary. In a sign of good government, Cartersville posted the invoice of the purchase on their website, so we can verify if the furniture was necessary and reasonably priced.
At the top of the second page, there is a line item for an L-shaped table for $1,669. This price is not including installation and delivery costs. That’s for one desk. They brought that same desk four times, which amounted to $6,676. If you asked a normal person how many desks they could buy for $6,676, you’d likely hear a number in the double digits — not a number that a one-handed person could count on their fingers. The author of this article is currently writing this blog post at a similarly-sized L-shaped desk that cost them $200.
If you thought the first desk price was astonishing, it gets worse. Another outrageous purchase made was for a LogiFlex Height Adjustable Desk for $3,995. Again, that is for one desk, although this one comes with fancy cabinets whereas the other one did not. I assume that justifies it costing almost three times more than the L-shaped desk.
Just a reminder: the city raised electricity rates for consumers.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia affiliate in Bartow County reached out to Dan Porta, the City Manager for the City of Cartersville, who responded that no other furniture stores were considered but defended the decision by saying that the furniture currently used is more than 20 years old. While that may or may not be true, the decision to buy the furniture from a firm with these high prices is asinine. Comparable furniture on Amazon has a much lower price tag with much of the same functionality.
Cartersville manages to remind us that the government does not see their revenue as their money, but just as an expendable number that can be used for whatever since they can just raise rates if they don’t have enough money. There is no incentive to be responsible with the money, there is just unrestricted waste.
