Tag: tax dollars

Feds Have Showered Washington State with Tax Dollars to Fix Homelessness, but It Keeps Getting Worse

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Homeless Person

A plethora of federal agencies have spent well over $200 million attempting to alleviate homelessness in Washington state over the past 17 years, only for the number of people living on the streets to keep rising.

Federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), among others, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars since 2007 on grants to third parties intended to mitigate homelessness in Washington, federal spending data shows. Despite the nine-figure sum of taxpayer dollars spent, the number of homeless people in Washington grew by about 20% between 2007 and 2023, according to a report produced by HUD.

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Arizona School Districts Accused of Using Tax Dollars to Oppose School Choice

The Center Square

Arizona school districts will violate state law next week by sending representatives to a meeting where they will encourage attendees to overturn the state’s new universal school choice law, the Goldwater Institute alleges.

The free-market legal nonprofit sent a letter to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office asking it to investigate and stop this behavior.

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Biden Admin Spend Up to $300K in Taxpayer Money to Boost LGBT ‘Social Acceptance’ in Botswana

Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Biden administration is spending up to $300,000 in tax dollars to promote gay and transgender “social acceptance” in Botswana, according to a federal grant listing reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Department of State will award one U.S. organization or academic institution with the funds so they may “bolster LGBTQI+ community initiatives” and “build support networks and organizations” in the African country. The participants, which will travel to the country and spend up to 18 months there, will be tasked with promoting gay and transgender acceptance among “influential religious groups and traditional groups.”

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Two Tools Track Arizona Governments, Reveal Missteps and Waste

Rachel Alexander
Arizona Capitol

It is National Sunshine Week, which celebrates transparency in government, including creating awareness about requesting information from governments through FOIA public record requests. In Arizona, there are two tools provided by state agencies which allow anyone to look online at some of the government spending by state and local governments. Although it is a minimal amount of data, it reveals some missteps and waste. 

The Arizona State Treasurer manages AZCheckbook.com, which provides information about funding the state gets from all sources, including the federal government, and how much it is distributing to schools, cities, and towns. The Arizona Department of Administration operates OpenBooks.AZ.gov, which provides checkbook-level information about individual state expenditures, including on the city and county level.

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Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction Says 20 Year Effort is Marked by ‘Too Many Failures’

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Special IG for Afghanistan ReconstructionFollow Inspector General John F. Sopko Testifies before Congress

The special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is calling the two-decade effort to rebuild the country a failure. The August 2021 report details the areas in which the American effort to rebuild the country came up far short of the initial goal.

“The extraordinary costs were meant to serve a purpose – though the definition of that purpose evolved over time,” reads the 140-page report, alluding the United States’ changing goals in the region over the course of its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan.

“After 13 years of oversight, the cumulative list of systemic challenges SIGAR and other oversight bodies have identified is staggering,” reads the report.

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Petition Urges North Dakota County to Ban Sanctuary Cities, Illegal Immigrants, and Refugees

Arizona Sun Times Staff

A petition urging officials in a North Dakota county to ban sanctuary cities, illegal immigrants, and refugees gained around 5,000 signatures as of Tuesday, the Minot Daily News reported.

The Ward County Commission said they would uphold laws prohibiting illegal immigration and those supporting Second Amendment rights, though they asked petitioners to provide more specific language to be considered, according to the Minot Daily News. The petition asked the commission to ban illegal immigration and refugees from the county and to establish the region as a “gun sanctuary.”

Residents in Ward County started the petition “to ban sanctuary cities, illegal immigrants, aliens, refugees in Ward County, North Dakota, and add Ward County, North Dakota, as a Second Amendment gun sanctuary county,” the Minot Daily News reported.

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As Illegal Migration Explodes, Concerns Grow U.S. Tax Dollars May Be Aiding Trafficking

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Woman with $100 bills spread open in hands

On a recent congressional trip to the Darién Gap in Panama, where tens of thousands of migrants begin their trek to the U.S. southern border, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., noted something remarkable.

Western Union outlets were stationed near migrant camps on either side of the gap, making it easy for relatives of migrants who are already in the United States to wire funds. Security officials say some of those funds are then used to pay off smugglers and members of cartels at various points along the migrants’ trip to America.

Tiffany said he fears the COVID-19 stimulus payments approved by Congress may be driving some of the flow of money.

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