OUR VIEW
What's pork depend on your view
Every time the federal government puts out a budget, there's plenty of what's called pork in it. This is money that is usually put into the budget to fund little projects here and there in the various senators' and representatives' districts.

The pork designation is most often reserved for those projects deemed a frivolous use of taxpayer money.

But there are also those hardliners who believe all of this discretionary spending is a frivolous use of taxpayer money.

That pork, if you want to call it that, is also enabling Thomasville to become a growing force for economic growth in southwest Alabama.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Our elected officials at all levels have an obligation to keep our taxes as low as possible, but they also have an obligation to keep this country, region, county, moving forward.

In a world where nearly everything has a price, that progress usually takes money. And the federal government is in a unique position to give a town like Thomasville a unique boost in its efforts.

Call it investing.

While we want to see our taxes stay as low as possible, we also believe prudent investment of tax money into the areas that are striving and making progress can be a powerful aid in maintaining the momentum.

And when it comes to the behemoth of the federal government, let's not be so naive as to think that if discretionary spending and special grant programs disappeared tomorrow we'd somehow get refund of that balance.

That money's going to go somewhere, so we urge our legislators to put it where it can impact people's lives in a positive way and reward the progress places like the Black Belt and southwest Alabama have made to pull ourselves up by our boot straps.

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