Our tax dollars hard at work - warrington fire dept.
 

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call a newspaper or tv station...

here's a contact at the Bucks County Courier Times you can call/email:

Finley, Ben 215.949.4203 bfinley@phillyburbs.com

and make sure u're anonymous if you like your job.

not surprising at all. and the sad truth is if they dont spend the money, they will probobly lose it in their budget for the next year. im sure the money could be spent much better than that though...

I agree, this happens every year in the military, gov't, police force, post office, etc. and there is nothing you can do about it. Now think about it? When next fiscal year comes around and their funds are cut and they really need that money to complete the job, just thank the person that turns them in. Not like it will do anything anyway! It's a BS system but thats just the way it is. They all waste money.

Ya, they get grant money so whatever isnt used gets lost in the way.

Pretty much it goes like this, if you don't use the money then it shows that you don't need it. Eventhough you save and cut corners trying to make that money last, it doesn't matter. So they save all year up until September "Just incase" then they dump it. Its called fallout money at the end of the fiscal year, September 30th.

I remember Blue Cross medical sending "thank you" packages around to everyone telling them how much money they saved one year. Something like 5 million dollars. The "thank you" package was a wooden box, stained and hand painted, with the words "thank you for helping us save 5 million for better health" and when you flipped the lid up it played a song and said "Thank you for your support"

The packaging that surrounded this "thank you box" was made of elaborate cardboard and bubble packaging.

Now, just a ballpark figure, that stupid toy must have cost about $5 bucks to produce, and about $3 to ship. Blue cross has how many millions of insured customers? Sheeeeit. Lets just say they have a cool 1 million people PAYING for health insurance. They claimed they saved $5 million. But if they sent out 1 million, $8 toys, that's a net LOSS of $3 Mil.

There's no way that toy was cheapy cheap. Hand crafted, hand painted, custom recording, a battery, wiring, the song license and the custom packaging must have offset the entire thing.

Unfortunately my company has departments that hoard money like this.

If your department is allocated $20,000 a year for incidental crap... and you don't use it. Guess what, next year you get $10,000, etc. So people try to fill out all kinds of junk and blow money to keep their cushy deparmental funds, just incase they need to hire a temp, or the boss wants a new laptop, etc.

Its corruption throughout the system and we're all worse off as a result. If the system worked as it should where the money went where it was NEEDED and nowhere else, everyone would have funding for what is necessary and the rest would go back to the gov't... our taxes might be lower, our economy might be stronger, schools might be much needed better funding, etc etc. Of course this would never happen in reality unfortunately.

^^^ Bryan if it were only that easy. the sad truth if they actually needed the money, getting it reallocated to them would be damn near impossible. its so ass backwards, but thats they way it works.

its not that govt and municipalities are short funds, its the allocation of the funds thats f^cked.

while were onn the subject of funding.. heres a few to think about that bother me

why does the post office, utilities and for that matter the military, need to advertise?

and this is my favorite... my ex girlfriend works for the red cross as a caseworker. she is dispatched primarily in boston but also nationally for disasters. well a lot of times at fires, the red cross will dispatch helicopters and have anywhere from 3-5 18wheelers standing by just IN CASE they may need to transport something..

o, she also drives their hummers around just for fun

^^ because the red cross has been caught laundering money and embezzling before? Hell I remember hearing about the scandles when I was a kid through young adult.

i know i remember it too. if these non profits and municpalities were held to the same standards of financial reporting that publicly held companies maybe there would be a lot less waste, and misapropriated funds

Very true...another example for you guys. One year my unit was so broke we didn't get new boots or jackets for winter, yet we had to plow the runway and work on the flightline. As soon as September rolled around they had fallout money and we got our cold weather gear that was needed months prior. You can only eat it in these situations. If something huge came up and they needed to spend that money it would of been there. If they had spent it prior to the new fiscal year then they would have NO money until October 1st and that can't happen.

It's the same principle of us keeping an emergency fund in savings but instead of us keeping our money at the end of year, they have to spend it or loss it totally. Make sense to give it away? No!

I am sure this FD could of spent the money on things they needed during the year but they decided to do what everyone else does with funds. They save/stretch them as far as needed.

Heres a question to think about. I understand they need to blow the money, but why not save the GOOD tires in the event they ever have a blow out/etc. where they need another good tire and are short funding. Its not so much the getting new tires early that bothers me, its that someone wants to keep them and put them on their own car.

im all for giving pd fd whatever the benefit of a doubt in most cases, but this just really seems like theft. i bet that 800 for tires (or whatever it was) could have bought something better

I agree with you guys, I'm just saying that IF no one abused the money, and the system worked as it should, then when something was needed it would be allocated. I'm just speaking in theory here, I recognize that unfortunately this would require honesty and integrity from everyone, which wouldn't ever happen even though we'd all be better off in the end.

Yes and that should be reported, not the FD doing what it needs to keep their funding.

thats just the thing troll, there is no honesty even when they are just trying to do the "right thing". by taking the money away next year, they have no choice but to spend it stupidly, even after a year of pinching pennies. FD even chip in their own money to pay for meals. whos to say this tire fund couldnt be allocated towards a meal fund.

everyone should get their yearly budget based on actual need. if they go under or over, you deal with it then