Museum of the Marine receives state funds
The Museum of the Marine has received a gift of financial breathing room from the state which comes in the wake of such expenditures being labeled as “wasteful” by a North Carolina-based conservative institute.
The Museum of the Marine has received a gift of financial breathing room from the state which comes in the wake of such expenditures being labeled as “wasteful” by a North Carolina-based conservative institute.
This week, the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management allocated $500,000 dollars to the Museum of the Marine as part of the state’s current $21.7 billion dollar fiscal year budget. The funds appropriated to the museum board of directors are considered “unrestricted,” thus authorizing the board to spend the funds as they see fit under their current phasing plans.
Museum of the Marine Executive Director Dave Brown indicated that the museum still needs to establish specific priorities for how the allocated state funds will be spent. However, he did allude to plans that would merge the nine different storage sites around the Jacksonville area that contain historical Marine Corps uniforms dating back to when the U.S. first entered World War II. Those artifacts include weapons from various eras, foot lockers and even combat vehicles.
“We need to get all the storage facilities consolidated and start a very thorough inventory process,” Brown said.
Moreover, state funds will also be used to complete the museum’s celebration and reflecting park and fund the creation of the front entrance water atrium that will display the Marine Corps’ iconic emblem, what Brown described as the largest Eagle, Globe and Anchor in the world as far as they know.
“We don’t have the final bids on the water feature, so that’s a process we don’t have everything finalized yet, but it looks like everything is going to be under budget or within the budget,” Brown said.
Still, the Republican controlled state legislature has garnered sharp criticisms from the Civitas Institute for providing funding to projects like the Museum of the Marine in its state budget, labeling these types of ventures as “wasteful spending of North Carolina taxpayer dollars.”
Brian Balfour is the policy director for the Civitas Institute, a conservative policy analysis group based in Raleigh. “(The Museum of the Marine) was itemized as part of our lengthier list… highlighting various line items within the budget that use state tax dollars for things that we feel are not an appropriate use of taxpayer funds and by that, we mean areas that are outside the core functions of state government,” Balfour said.
He added that funding for projects like the Museum of the Marine should be allocated from local government budgets and private voluntary donations, thereby facilitating additional state funds to go back into the pockets of North Carolina taxpayers.
“It’s really about lowering the tax burden on North Carolinians, so residents can keep more of their hard earned dollars,” he said.
