The Washington Post

May 31, 2004 Monday

SECTION: Editorial; A22

LENGTH: 476 words

HEADLINE: Allocating the Ground Zero Funds

BODY:
In "Ground Zero Funds Often Drifted Uptown" [front page, May 22], Michael Powell and Michelle Garcia tell a tale of high-level greed and disingenuousness. Millions of dollars in subsidies intended to benefit neighborhoods near Ground Zero were diverted to benefit the financial elites of New York, and the people be damned.

Now those who were responsible for diverting the funds say they just wanted to spur the economic vitality of the city. What hubris.

Why is it so difficult to put a stop to such disgusting behavior? We hold people "accountable" for smoking a joint or robbing a convenience store but not for walking off with the public purse.

PAT GOUDEY O'BRIEN

Warren, Vt.

*

Liberty Bonds are not grants, guarantees or free money, and they were not intended solely for Lower Manhattan. Projects such as a Times Square office building are precisely the kind of growth-oriented, job-creating investments the city needs to fully recover from the economic pain of Sept. 11, 2001. Low-income housing is a worthy use of tax-exempt financing, and billions of dollars of tax-exempt bonds are sold every year for this purpose.

The idea of the Liberty Bond program was to temporarily extend the same kind of assistance to projects that otherwise would not qualify for tax-exempt financing.

I hope Congress will act quickly on a pending bill to extend the Liberty Bond program so that New York can realize the full $15 billion in financing that Congress intended to deliver.

MICAH S. GREEN

President

The Bond Market Association

Washington

*

The article about funds being wasted in New York disgusted me. I was a firefighter with Arlington County, and I responded to the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

During that response, I suffered lung damage and a permanent disability to my left leg. I now walk painfully with a cane or ride in a wheelchair.

I still go to physical therapy twice a week in an attempt to limit the pain in my essentially useless leg. Yet I and the other firefighters disabled that day haven't received huge sums or help. Workers' compensation hasn't paid for my physical therapy since January 2003, despite its own doctor declaring me permanently disabled and prescribing the therapy. Workers' comp won't pay for my mobility aids either, and it has informed my other doctors that it won't pay for my other treatments after this year. Since I haven't gotten better, I guess I'm disposable.

When I asked the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency how to apply for funds from the proceeds of the "Heroes" stamp being sold to aid disabled firefighters, I was told that an application process isn't ready yet. I still have hope for the federal Victim Compensation Fund.

I'll be thinking of Robert DeNiro's upscale boutique paid for by Sept. 11 grants when I go shopping for a used wheelchair.

PHILLIP McKEE

Fairfax