Not everything we cover in the news business makes it through to the average person on the street. They have so many things competing for their attention, and what we report on can often be fairly technical or only of interest to those fixated on state policy. But one exception I’ve seen to this rule over the years is when public money is egregiously wasted.
The spending decisions made by officials in the Town of Cary is an obvious recent example. People I know in my personal life who rarely discuss anything from local or state news have asked, “Have you heard about the crazy things they wasted money on in Cary?” Those who do not live in the town can ask this with a bit of an amused smirk at the outrageousness of some of the spending. But for those whose taxes go to this particular city’s budgets, there’s a sense of exasperation and even outrage.
For them, it’s not just another story of government waste somewhere out there. It’s a direct betrayal because it’s THEIR money being wasted. A lot of the money we earn each week ends up, not in our own bank accounts, but sent to various levels of government, on spending we understand is necessary — roads, police, schools, etc. And we are also resigned to the fact that a fair bit of it is wasted, no matter how many promises we hear about ending waste, fraud, and abuse…