The Post Star
June 19, 2016

When I ran for Congress, I pledged that I would work across the aisle and support good ideas to help our community, no matter who they came from.

With this in mind, I read with interest a recent interview from my fellow candidate for Congress, Matt Funiciello, in the Glens Falls Post-Star. In this interview, he proposed turning federal funding for economic development and infrastructure projects into a block grant program that would allow local communities and governments to decide how to best allocate these resources.

This would in turn eliminate the concerns over earmarks in the federal appropriations process, as money would be used at the discretion of the local community. As Mr. Funiciello told The Post-Star, “I think maybe then we would see that our pork projects aren’t pork projects any more. They’re actually projects that benefit the community that we would vote on, that we would develop on our own.”

I write today to give my support for this concept. On issues ranging from education reform to combatting the opioid crisis in our community, I have long supported turning authority over to local governments who know best how to allocate resources. I strongly believe federal resources that are made available to our North Country community will be spent most wisely by our local governments, with North Country voters being able to easily and accessibly weigh in.

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