Open The Books Or Give The Money Back

It is time that Jefferson County demands transparency from those that profit from our pocket books. It simply isn’t right that tax dollars go to support groups that hide behind their non profit status to try and keep secrets. I am sorry but you just can’t have it both ways. The Chamber of Commerce gets over half of their annual funding from public money-in essence, the citizens of Jefferson County. Do we get to vote on this funding? No. We are expected to trust our elected officials to have our best interests at heart. Yet, there is no reciprocal from the Chamber of Commerce or EDOC. We give to them and they hide from us. The Chamber of Commerce should be capable of generating their own funding. Public relations are, after all, what they are supposed to be experts in. Yet, our Chamber just can’t seem to get it together enough to fund themselves. So, they are funded with public funds…but they do not want to adhere to the criteria of those that are funded by public funds. You just can’t have it both ways. Either open the books or give the money back. It is as simple as that and if our elected officials don’t get a queasy feeling at funding a group that thumbs its nose at transparency then there is something very wrong. If our elected officials will not require transparency as a condition of funding then there are some very serious other questions that the public needs to be asking. Open the books or give back the money. Very simple solutions to answering the question of where did our tax dollars go?  The Chamber and EDOC have been asked for transparency and they have refused. At what point do our elected officials stand up for our citizens and say enough is enough? Doesn’t is make you wonder what they are so determined to keep a secret? It does me.