CANNON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A community near Grand Rapids has turned down thousands of dollars in state and federal aid related to the coronavirus epidemic.
The reason: Cannon Township said it doesn’t need it.
“The way we budget, and we have budgeted, we were ready for COVID and we didn’t have any legitimate extra expenses due to COVID that weren’t already budgeted and so we had to respectfully decline to take the money,” said Steve Grimm, the township supervisor.
The township board declined more than $140,000 from the federal government and will accept less than $1,000 from roughly $12,000 offered by the state, WOOD-TV reported.
“These governments fall all over themselves to line up for quote, unquote, free money and we just decided what we were going to do is say enough of that is enough,” Grimm said.
He hopes the township’s actions will inspire others.
“People are parsing the application and so they’re saying things like, ’Well, we bought new computers,’ even though they were budgeted,” Grimm said.
Cannon, population 15,000, mostly is a residential community northeast of Grand Rapids.
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