More lunacy from the green eco-nuts, this time in the City of Binghamton. (Hey, I moved out of Binghamton–so don’t blame this one on me. Any group of people who vote for, and re-elect Matt Ryan for Mayor and the Citizen Action Gang as the City Council, are certifiably nuts!)

Today’s “through the looking glass” moment: The City is applying for a $321K grant from the state for solar panels to save $7,500 per year in electricity costs at the sewage treatment plant. From the Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton considers solar panels for plant):

City officials are hoping to install solar panels at the Binghamton water filtration plant to save on electricity costs.

The city council voted Wednesday to authorize an application for $320,933 in grant funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to pay most of the cost of the project.

If the state approves the grant, the solar panels will save about $7,500 a year in electricity costs at the plant, said Amelia LoDolce, sustainable development planner for the city.

And further into the article, this:

In order to do the project, however, Binghamton must provide a 15 percent match to the state funding. This equates to $56,635, which the city will borrow.

So, Binghamton city residents will have to pony up $56, 635 out of their “City of Binghamton taxpayer pocket” while the rest of us across the state will have to pony up $264,298 our of our “New York State taxpayer pocket” to fund this folly. Why a folly? Anyone with a scintilla of business sense looks at the payback period for a capital investment like this. I would say most businesses, if they invested $321K, would want to AT LEAST break even and make back their investment in ten years or less. What’s the payback period for this one? What is the period of time it will take to recoup the investment of $321K by saving $7.5K per year? Try 43 years!

That folks, is why government needs to run as absolutely little as possible. They can’t even make intelligent decisions about a sewage plant! The technology itself will likely not last more than a decade, maybe 15 years, before it needs to be replaced. No matter, soak the taxpayer. The mindset is that state grant money appears magically, like a pot of gold someone found along the roadside. It’s TAXPAYER money taken (forcibly) from us, and you’re flushing it down the toilet Binghamton!

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Matt Ryan, Binghamton City Council, Citizen Action, sewage treatment plant, government spending, government grants, Amelia LoDolce