Playing fast and loose with the public treasure in LR

Is there anyone besides me who has a problem with public funds flowing directly to a private business, courtesy of the Los Ranchos board of "trustees"? Over $600, 000 of OUR money, earmarked in the last capital outlay request--and granted by our generous legislators---for the Unser racing museum, a private concern, went to the museum this year alone.

Capital outlay funds come from the state, via the legislature, to fund public works and to support local governments. The money is generated from our state income taxes and from the state portion of the GRT. Each fall, before the legislative session, all of the local government entities meet and approve a "wish list" of projects that they would like to have funded. This list is passed on the the local state representatives, who place them in proposed legislation. Typically, a municipality may ask for library books, a new fire truck, a community center and the like. But here in Los Ranchos, requests have been made by hizzoner, and rubber stamped--er, approved--without discussion by the board for this sad little museum. Lots of YOUR money has flowed to the Unsers in this manner.

And just what had the public received from the Unser museum? Answer---not much. The place is nearly inaccessible from Montano, is rarely open and provides no apparent public services whatsoever. No improvements have been made to the exterior of the place since it opened, and last I checked it costs to get inside to see one or two old race cars. So what reason is there for Larry to earmark OUR money for this boondoggle? And why is he such a booster of this pathetic endeavor, even disfiguring village hall with a big banner advertising the place?

A damn good question. El Picador has a theory, of course. As you recall, one of hizzoner's first acts as mayor was to ram through a 280 foot development setback on RGB, the better to protect his quality of life. Unfortunately, that decision took lots of potential income out of the pockets of big RGB landowners who had planned on developing their land----people like the Unsers and the Andersons. The Unsers threatened legal action, and the Andersons actually filed a suit, against the village because of the setbacks. Now co-incidentally, both suits are gone and both families have been the beneficiaries of Larry's largess with our money. The Andersons get the lion's share of the open space money, raised from our property taxes, and the Unsers get a big chunk of LR's share of the capital outlay for their "museum".

Larry certainly has some questions to answer here. At best he is a sloppy custodian of our money (besides this, the village is over $750,000 in the red this year). At worst, he is a crook. Either way, he needs to be held to account.