If Greensboro’s City Council can spend “Two Thirds Bond” money on anything they want, should the “Two Thirds Bonds” to close White Street Landfill and other projects be considered "earmarks" less than two months before an election?

Two Thirds

Criticism of Earmarks

 

An earmark is an item that is inserted into a bill to direct funds to a specific project or recipient without any public hearing or review. One of the problems is that there is no transparency or accountability in the system.

 

…members can secure...funding for a project without subjecting it to debate…or to the scrutiny and oversight of the public.

 

… some members use them to secretly award their biggest campaign contributors or exchange them for bribes. The secrecy of the earmarking process invites unethical and corrupt behavior, where lobbyists and contractors and well-connected individuals give campaign contributions to legislators…

 

Earmarks…appear, sometimes as lists, sometimes embedded in text, in…Conference Committee reports that accompany legislation.

 

Earmarks are also offered to members to entice them to vote for a bill they otherwise would not vote for.

 

Sunlight Foundation

Wikipedia