Big Waste of Our Tax Dollars Coming in February. By Geniusofdespair

The stupidest idea the County every put into being: The Mom and Pop Grant program. These grants are a pet peeve of mine and I have asked for an audit of the funds. The County grants of up to $15,000 per entity to help small businesses. The accountants and lawyers do okay with the grants. Most of the rest go out of business especially in some commission districts.  How about requiring matching funds? I did an investigative blog in 2013 about some of the Grants issued in 2009, That year Miami Dade County even gave a grant to an optometrist in Hollywood...that is in Broward:

In District 2 I looked up 32 Companies in business in 2009 that got Mom and Pop grants. Out of 32, 14 appear to be defunct. That is almost half. In District 3 I found 11 out of 22 (I couldn't find 2 companies listed) out of business.

In District 6 out of the 23 I looked at from the 2009-10 list, only 3 were defunct but they awarded a startling 102 grants in that district. I only looked at a quarter of them.

In some commission districts nearly half the Mom and Pop grants awarded in the 2009–2010 cycle were awarded to businesses that are now listed as defunct by the State of Florida. Pay the losses no mind because applications for 2016 grants will become available in February! 

Here is what it says about the grant program on the County Website:

The Mom and Pop Small Business Grant Program was created to provide financial and technical assistance to qualified for-profit small businesses that are approved for funding. (LIKE EXACTLY WHO APPROVES THEM??) 

This program has allowed small owned and operated businesses the opportunity to interact with local government under favorable conditions, and this relationship will ultimately bridge the gap between the two entities. (WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS MEAN??)

Here is a video of their success stories -- well actually they only have one success story. The lady got crop insurance with the money -- $5,000. She also got a Mom and Pop grant for $2,500 for irrigation. She is getting a third grant for education. I don't know why we are paying for this stuff. She has been in business since 1994 according to Sunbiz. Does she really need our money? I thought this was start-up money? If you have been in business almost 20 years, why do you need hard earned taxpayer money?

I wish they did a video of ALL the failures we paid for.