We all know that local, state, and federal government are facing disastrous revenue declines, and are loathe to make the “tough decisions” to deal with the realities of years and years of unsustainable government growth. Maine alone has had to deal with budget shortfalls of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, not to mention similar amounts of unpaid bills and billions in unfunded liabilities.
At the same time, a small elite institution like Bowdoin College is essentially immune from the economic climate the rest of us face, other than as it effects the returns on their half a billion or so endowment fund. You haven’t read about any layoffs over at the college, or any problems filling their incoming freshman slots. Economically, Bowdoin might as well be on another planet.
Imagine then how delighted we were to read that the Maine Public Utilities Commission, a state instrumentality, recently saw fit to award the college a $50,000 grant to install a solar hot water heater on the roof of their dining hall. This is in addition to other state funding they received recently for installation of a “cogeneration facility.”
In view of the state budget challenges, one wonders how many will go hungry, untreated, or uncared for so that Bowdoin can make capital improvements to their facilities with taxpayer funds. Is it just me, or is this the very height of fiscal idiocy that stems from the institutional addiction to spending other people’s money, or OPM (pronounced o-pi-em), in order to make one feel good? I can think of no finer example at the moment.
Watching the “non-profit,” tax-advantaged college constantly spend millions upon millions on their plant, sometimes even tearing down a perfectly good facility to replace it with a better one (ice rink), we are incensed by the callous disregard for stewardship of public funds this demonstrates.
And the next time we hear wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over the loss of taxpayer funding, well, we’ll direct the actor to the roof of the Bowdoin dining hall for consolation.
Get your priorities straight, people. The place where the campus elite meet to eat deserves your support before all those other “vital services” you’re always ranting about, like schools, roads, etc, etc.
PS: On an Other Side Bright Side note, at least this item provided 11 or 12 column inches of “news” for the Ostrich at essentially no cost and with no effort. So the “benefits” of the grant spread further than initially reported.
DOES THIS MEAN THAT WITH THESE GREAT GIFTS TO BOWDOIN COLLEGE,OUT OF TAXPAYER FUNDS THAT WE HAVE NOW REGAINED OUR TITLE OF "BRUNSWICK, TAX EXEMPT CAPITOL OF MAINE"? NOW I KNOW HOW THAT BOWDOIN GRAD FELT AT CUSTER'S LAST STAND.
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