What I said at the 2/26/18 City Councel Meeting

At the end of the last council meeting, the Mayor made a point to encourage the citizens of Auburn to access the home buying and rehabilitation assistance through the city’s CDBG funding and program. I am well acquainted with that program, as it’s the reason My husband and I have been raising our family here for almost 9 years.

The people who work in that office are lovely humans, we have the pleasure of knowing, but I have gained understanding and a change of view over the last 9 years and I’d like to address something from last time I spoke here. As you will recall, I addressed a long list of things which are, in my opinion, not your job to do for us, but the truth is, you only comprise half the problem. So, to the citizens of Auburn: Please, do not access the CDBG funds to accomplish your goals of home ownership. Please, do not be a people who run to the government to meet your needs.

Our choice has always been for me to be a stay at home mom - something which is best for our children. Our choice puts us in the category of qualifying for many programs of government assistance, and in times past, I’ve had a weaker conscience about accessing those programs than I was raised with, but I’ve come back around, and I now see the wisdom that is being lost in this day and age.

Our choice shouldn’t be the responsibility of the taxpayer to compensate, and if we’d lived by that, I wouldn’t be here bugging you guys. However, thanks to the trojans which live in the horse of government aid, you have me for at least another 6 years. Let me explain.

Understanding more now than I did then, I can look back and see that all we really needed for our current home to be livable - because homes which needed rehab in order to be livable were all we could afford - was two sides of our roofing redone and the water damaged ceiling repaired in our living room. However, we couldn’t get that done through the city without agreeing to all the other “help” that was required. We had to agree to bring things, which didn’t affect livability, up to code and I believe we also had to agree to weatherization upgrades. Isn’t that how this always goes?

More than $30,000 in debt later (and who knows how much tax payers shelled out beyond what we agreed to pay back), we had much done that, while nice enough, was really a matter of making our home compliant with government regulations. Things which, for us, didn’t affect the home’s livability.

Not only that, but to access these funds we had to give up some of our freedoms. We had to agree to not use the property as a school or as a church. Being both a homeschool mom and a christian, I asked for clarification: Can I homeschool? Can we host a bible study or youth group. Right then, and for the time being, those activities didn’t constitute the official creation of an organization which would get us into trouble. Of course, if the GOP is stupid enough to push through the trojan horse of “School Choice”, will the public funds that are attached to my children, and then given to me, qualify our homeschooling as a publicly funded school? If yes, we’ll take the HUD defined penalty, and sell the place before the end of our 15 year contract to remain the owners of the home.

My absolute favorite thing to have agreed to was our promise not to die. That’s right. In order to get federal and, then, city help in rehabilitating our home, we had to agree not to die for the duration of our 15 year contract. Not knowing whether or not we’d have the audacity to up and croak, we agreed to pay a penalty if we did die. Because, grieving the loss of one’s spouse wouldn’t be sufficient without having to also pay back, in full, the money we owe, plus a penalty sum to the federal government.

These programs, these grants, they ALWAYS come with caveats - agreed upon loss of freedom, restrictions, ways in which the taxpayer gets gouged without their consent. And, that’s just for the individual who takes advantage of what you’re offering. Because, in order for you to have those grants and funds to offer, you have to bring the city under submission to the state and federal government’s conditions for that money, and increasingly those conditions have more than just responsibility toward the taxpayer in mind. Increasingly, those conditions exist to force lower level, smaller governments into implementing top down agendas. Making “local control” a joke. Sure you have some freedom to use the CDBG funds in ways which are specific to the city, much the same way a pig has freedom to sleep in the northern corner of the pen as opposed to the southern corner.

My question is: What are you agreeing to when you get all of us into all these urban development deals?

It’s rhetorical, of course, as whatever your answer is will not be worth the money you’re getting, and offering to us.

Had we figured out buying a home and rehabbing it on our own, instead of having you blow insulation into our walls, which - nearly 9 years later - we’ve noticed is not doing as good a job as it did at first, I would have had my father, whose profession is masonry, come and, with my help, build a beautiful chimney and hearth for a wood stove. I would have had us take out a loan for the ceiling and roofing repairs, and while we’d probably be in just as much debt, we wouldn’t be tied to this property for 15 years hoping we stay alive so we don’t own the federal government what we owe all in one lump sum and with a penalty to boot. I’d love to install that stove now, as a more self sufficient means of heat and cooking on those occasions when we lose power. Which, just this past week, is something the Sun Journal informed the L/A citizens, might be more a part of Maine’s future. But, alas, that dream will have to wait until after we finish paying back the city for its help.

All it takes is one city council and Mayor to say, "No thank you, State and Federal government, we'll figure this all out on our own."

Then, and only then, will we see freedom reigning.

Then, and only then, will we be planning our city, not according to the parameters of top down agendas, but according to what the people who already live here want and really need.

Your talk of small government is cheap if you’re happily supporting the further use of bigger government incentives to achieve your goals. We need people in, and out, of this building who will plant their feet and say, “No more. We’re going to figure this out on our own.”

My husband and I are honorable, and we’ll pay back what we owe and abide by the conditions of our contract to the best of our ability. If I could go back, I’d empower my younger self to do it without your help, but I can’t go back. However, I can sit here and challenge listening citizens to not do what my younger self did, and I fully plan to make myself a nuisance here with the 6 remaining years of our contract, challenging you all to be actual small government champions.