WDDI stands and delivers

Seeing that by Tax Day its flow of cash would turn from thin trickle to dust, Waynesboro’s Main Street organization a month ago pulled out budget knives, then held out hands. As a result, Waynesboro Downtown Development Inc., whose existence was endangered enough that the city was prepared to help, has snatched itself from the precipice. Others should take notice.

WDDI board member Len Poulin told the City Council on Monday that the agency had raised about $6,000, enough to cover about half of its budget gap, from private investors. A fundraising push began after WDDI announced last month that it would slash staff salaries by 20 percent. “Four weeks ago, [looking ahead at funding] we ran out of money April 15,” Poulin told the council. “It was crisis mode.”

Recognizing as much, the city staff, which has been busily making cuts of its own, found $25,000 in the budget to supply WDDI with emergency money, provided the council nodded in assent. Not only is that help no longer needed, Poulin explained, WDDI already is pursuing private money to help the agency stand more firmly on its own feet next year.

That could prove essential with the city expected to slash annual aid to WDDI from $65,000 to $50,000. If the council approves the move, it would mean that since last fiscal year, when WDDI received $75,000, city aid to the agency will have been cut by a third.

Such moves are the product of two things. The first is an economic freefall driven by a slide in the housing market that has stung Invista particularly and triggered losses in the city’s machine tax revenues. The city is looking to save money wherever it can. A second factor likely looms larger: the thinking of the council’s conservative bloc, led by Vice Mayor Frank Lucente.

His view represents a classic conservatism, referred to by some as paleoconservatism, which strikingly resembles the libertarian position recently made famous by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul. What this philosophy says about government deserves a hearing: That its reach, which federally is everywhere, should be restrained to the greatest extent possible, that government should spend and intrude as little as it can, keeping taxes and regulations to bare minimums.

These concepts flow from a venerable source, the founding fathers whose vision – a term Lucente disdains but in this case might appreciate – formed this country and an era of unrivaled might and prosperity. And the approach is especially useful in times like these, when governments are tasked with operating more efficiently than ever to cope with massive revenue shortfalls. What is foreign to many elected officials – whittling spending – is ideologically natural to Lucente.

As a result, his desire long has been to move agencies like WDDI and the Waynesboro Economic Development Authority, which feed like calves off the city cow, to what he calls self-sufficiency – meaning they would operate independent of city taxpayer money.

These are moves in right – and correct – directions, and they bring an additional benefit. Agencies that do not take city taxpayer money are also freed from city politics.

Still, care should be taken to ensure the existence of both WDDI and the EDA. As City Manager Mike Hamp explained Monday, WDDI is needed to ensure the city’s participation in the state’s Main Street program, which helps link the city to grant money. More importantly, WDDI and the EDA serve as catalysts for helping sharpen the city’s focus on economic development both downtown and throughout the city.

We concur with Lucente’s goal of self-sufficiency so long as it entails driving those agencies to that place rather than out of town. Trusting as much, we hope other groups are inspired by WDDI’s shining example. That agency has shown money can be found in the private sector, where it can be given freely. We commend WDDI’s exemplary work and resilience. Let others see the model and follow it.