I grew up in farm country, and out there the saying about a farmer who is better at getting USDA funds than growing crops is that he's farming the program instead of farming his land. The Roseland Bowl isn't a farm, but it looks like Jack Moran, the owner of the business, would make a pretty good farmer. Not only did he get a USDA rural development loan guarantee last week, Rochesterturning dug up a story showing that he was the recipient of funds from a 9/11 loan program a few years ago. Both of the loan programs he's used have been held up as examples of government waste and mismanagement.
Though these loans are big and are at the edge of program guidelines, I don't think the story here is about Kuhl or Moran. Kuhl wasn't in office when the 9/11 loans were granted. Moran is a pretty solid Republican donor, but he's certainly not maxing out his contributions to any politician, including Kuhl. The real story is how little care is exercised by the current administration when handing out loan guarantees. Roseland Bowl wasn't directly hurt by 9/11, and it isn't in a truly rural environment. Nevertheless, it has gotten a whopping $3.8 million of government-guaranteed loans from programs that are either loosely structured or loosely administered. The same USDA program that funded Roseland also funded an art gallery on Cape Cod and rental subsidies on Nantucket.
Republicans like Kuhl use the rhetoric of fiscal conservatism, yet the practice of the administration they support is to spend money with less restraint than drunken sailors. It will be interesting to see if Kuhl's opponent can make some hay on this issue in 2008, because it's programs like these that raise our taxes.
As for Jack Moran, I can't blame him for farming the program. If the money's there, he'd be a fool not to take it.
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Rotten... don't forget that Moran ran the BPAA for 3 years. It's not solely about Kuhl and never was, but none the less this is government waste and nepotism with Randy Kuhl bragging about it in a press release.
The real story is how little care is exercised by the current administration when handing out loan guarantees.
That's my take as well.
You are right. Moran is a good farmer in that he works hard, plants and reaps. Like a lot of farmers he is carrying a lot of debt. It will be worth looking at his USDA loan payments periodically to see how he's doing. After all, we co-signed his loans.