Government Spending
Pt. Reyes, California
2011
There’s been a lot of talk about excessive government spending lately (heck, there’s always a lot of talk about excessive government spending). I suppose you could argue that the National Park Service shouldn’t even be the owner and operator of the Pt. Reyes lighthouse facility, but you be hard pressed to claim they’ve gone overboard on the furnishings and upkeep for the place.
More than likely, the Pt. Reyes lighthouse has been designated a national historic site, landmark or building. The Agencies charged with their protection cannot afford to maintain the millions of square feet of these old vermin shelters let alone update them to the present H and S codes. Occasionally a community with strong leadership and energetic gov administrators come up with formal agreements with matching dollars to care for some of them and use them for visitors centers or other quasi historical cultural use. Rarely, with some sympathetic interpretation, annual appropriated funds can be channeled into their upkeep or reconstruction also, but these are often called “pork barrel” projects by the political opposition of those champions.