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Chester County Press

Uncle Irvin: Tin cup town

04/26/2016 12:23PM ● By Richard Gaw
According to a story in the April 13 issue of the Chester County Press, Oxford Borough Council will use the tin cup method to finance the new parking garage.
The town fathers want everyone else, except Oxfordians, to pay for their garage with grants.
Grants are mostly somebody else's tax money.
There was no councilperson who spoke up for Oxford to cough up some of the cost, which makes cents(sic) because Oxford will get 100 percent of the parking fees and 100 percent of the benefit of having convenient off-street parking.
What's really more important is it seems everyone in Oxford is looking for somebody else to pick up the green rather than the traditional American way of the community pitching in.
Oxford is no stranger to grants. It seems like borough manager Betsy Brantner has been successfully writing grants for everything under the sun for over 15 years.
Grants may have their place in Oxford's municipal finance, but they were not designed to finance all of the borough's capital needs.

(Uncle Irvin's column is his opinion only, and is not a news story.)