Mayor Mike Halfacre in 2008.
With his town having just landed a whopping $477,000 in federal stimulus money, one might think that Fair Haven mayor and congressional aspirant Mike Halfacre is in a bit of political quandary.
Halfacre, you see, rarely misses an opportunity to bash the Democrat-spearheaded spending plan.
“Charles Gibson just asked: What’s in massive stimulus for you?” Halfacre posted on Twitter back in February. “My answer: Not a damn thing!”
That was a couple of weeks after he wrote a blog post in which he called on “all Republicans” to oppose the economic bailout then up for a vote on the Hill. He termed it a “pork-laden and, by most economists’ accounts, ineffective stimulus package.”
Last week, Fair Haven learned it had won approval for the full cost of replacing sidewalks on River Road from Fair Haven Road west, past the Acme supermarket.
In fact, according to the Asbury Park Press, it was incumbent 12th-District Democrat Rush Holt who announced the award. Halfacre hopes to unseat Holt in the 2010 midterm election.
The borough filed paperwork seeking the money in April.
redbankgreen asked Halfacre, via email, if he wanted to comment on the apparent contradiction of seeking money he so openly disparages. His reply:
As a matter of economic policy, the stimulus bill was ill-conceived, and has
not been shown to be effective. It was rushed through without being
completely read, (remember the AIG bonuses?) and has had negligible impact
on the economy six months later.
However, this poorly conceived bill has become law. The 787 trillion dollars
will be spent, regardless of whether Fair Haven applied for any money or
not. We had a “shovel-ready” project, and we made an application.
Surprisingly, we received 100% of the money we asked for. As a result, Fair
Haven can do this project now, without placing any additional burden on our
property tax payers. It is unfortunate that our local “windfall” will be a
burden for future generations of Americans, and changing the spend, spend,
spend culture in Washington is one reason why I am running for Congress.
