The more I look into the situation at Tiverton’s Stone Bridge site, the better it illustrates the dysfunction of our system of government.  First of all, it isn’t clear who’s paying for the project.

The parcel is owned by the town.  The latest Fall River Herald article mentioning the renovations says the $2.6 million project will be funded by the RI Dept. of Transportation.  Most reports put the dollar amount at $2.3 million, so the Herald article may be including the DOT money to purchase the gas station.

An older article from the Herald, now available only in cache, says it’s a mix of federal and state funding.  The town’s Economic Development Commission (EDC) claims the town has received “a federal grant of $2,300,000.”  The latest Dept. of Environment Management assessment of the site, however, states that “currently available funds are well below the amount required to the satisfactorily rehabilitate the east abutment,” although that’s dated 2006.

So, it looks as if some federal money, flowing through the DOT, is being mixed with state and town money to fund the project.  In addition, the town, state, and federal governments will all be giving up whatever tax income they might have derived from private ownership and (perhaps) commerce on the site.

At the federal level, a couple million dollars isn’t even a drop in the bucket of $17 trillion in national debt, so nobody blinks to promise it for a walking-and-fishing park.  At the state level, officials look at their investment of a few hundred thousands of dollars as a way to “bring in” much more in federal money. (“Bring in” to whom?, one might reasonably ask.)  And locals in town who’ve disliked the eye-sore of business on their morning strolls commit their neighbors to a few hundred thousand more (when all is said and done) to buy the land.

No matter how the funding breaks down, though, it’s difficult to understand how our system of government can find millions of dollars for an out-of-the-way nook for pedestrians when there are still high-traffic sights like this East Providence photo across the state: