"Holding fast to principle, the council also dispensed itself with the estimated $30,000 of annual maintenance that would have been its portion of upkeep. Voila! No cleaning needed!

An accompanying cost that most will not recall was mentioned by another RightMichigan regular,  CS, who faithfully noted a chronicle of the suckling pigs squealing:

"I would think you'd want a city government that is a good steward of tax dollars and uses them wisely; after all, that's what an entity should be doing with its resources.... right?

This past April, the Michigan Economic Growth Authority approved a three-year $1.5 million state tax credit for Magna in support of plans to invest $765,000 in its Troy facility for a new division, which was estimated to create 200 new jobs.

Oh that's nice.  The state paid twice for the investment that the company made?

So if you don't mind, its time to break out the credit card again.  The Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago route is now seeing an additional burden to state taxpayers of $25 million.  

Added to the $8 million Michigan provides for its other two Amtrak lines, the state's tab for passenger rail service will jump to about $33 million.

Tim Hoeffner, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation's rail office, said the state has little choice but to absorb the added cost if it wants to meet a growing demand for passenger train service in the lower half of the state.

And costs will continue to climb as there is more demand.  And as the Troy Multi-modal boondoggle is completed, the wet paper towel that is our government's fiscal policy is dampened further.

Troy's former (now deposed by recall) mayor, Janice Daniels had it right all along.  The courage to stand up against short term gifts, that bring a legacy of  maintenance, versus a decision to not bathe the revered beast that will foul the finances for some time was worthy of note.