Editor,
In an email he sent Oct. 7 to update his constituents, Carmel City Councilor Adam Aasen addressed the council’s decision to fund the addition of two new statues in Carmel.
Without commenting on the pros and cons of adding these statues, I do believe that councilor Aasen’s rationale for voting in favor of funding the statues should give us taxpayers some concern. He said, “While I always carefully consider allocating money and I want to be fiscally conservative, this money was from excess funds that were not spent in the 2020 budget. For that reason, I am OK with approving the mayor’s request to purchase this artwork.”
This is the same distorted financial logic that we so often hear from career politicians: If money is available from last year’s budget, we need to spend it before it is no longer available. This seems to miss the fact that it is all the taxpayers’ money, whichever bucket the government puts it in.
Councilman Aasen has been in office for less than a year, but he seems to have made great progress in adopting the financial management values of the swamp. I wonder if other council members and the mayor relied on the same logic in deciding how to cast their votes?
Bob Sheipe, Carmel
