Never have I seen such to-do over one $50,000 appropriation in a small city’s annual budget as the to-do over the $50,000 that is being stripped from the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County in Fitchburg’s proposed 2018 budget.
Then again, rarely does a $50,000 city appropriation serve as such a good reason to get worked up over race, class, parenting and the role of government.
For the past 13 years, the club has been getting a noncompetitive grant of between $40,000 and $50,000 from the city to help feed, transport and otherwise care for Fitchburg kids, generally at the club’s location just on the Fitchburg side of its border with Madison.
Last year, Fitchburg City Council members proposed replacing such grants with a process by which nonprofits would compete for funding through a presumably objective, staff-driven process. Amid vociferous opposition from Boys & Girls Club CEO Michael Johnson and his allies, that idea was dropped as it would apply to the club, and the club’s funding was restored.