AFP-VA Decries McDonnell's Use of Taxpayer Dollars For So-Called "Green" Projects

In response to Governor McDonnell's announcement earlier today to spend $798,988 in taxpayer funds via a grant from the EPA to retrofit Virginia's capital with so-called "green" technology, Americans for Prosperity's Virginia state director Ben Marchi released the following statement:

"At a time when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pursuing job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, it is unthinkable that this administration would take nearly a million dollars in taxpayer funds from the EPA and other agencies to waste on non-essential core services. Today, Governor McDonnell and Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for a series of so-called “green” projects around Virginia's Capitol Square, which will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time when government spending has no end in sight. The money, which apparently will be used to create rain gardens and install special brick pavers in a couple of locations in Richmond, is a joint grant from the EPA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

We are disappointed to see that Governor McDonnell and other state and local leaders have decided to take advantage of yet another example of Washington’s aimless spending spree. The idea of Virginia's governor and other elected officials working hand-in-hand with the EPA, an agency that has pushed Congress to pass job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, is abhorrent to conservatives throughout the state. Governor McDonnell will not gain any friends by standing shoulder to shoulder with the EPA's top bureaucrats.

Taxpayers should be angered to see their hard-earned dollars being funneled towards such silly and aimless projects. It appears that Governor McDonnell would rather spend taxpayer dollars on improving downtown Richmond’s aesthetics and investing in pavement techniques to filter rainwater than return the money to the people who earned it. We hope our state and local leaders will choose in the future to be good stewards of the people’s money and avoid supporting such clear-cut examples of wasteful government spending."