Mr. Buescher, the state doesn't produce any income--it gleans off its citizens--so I'm sure what you really meant to say here is: "while state taxpayers would foot most of the bill."
Coupled with Fletcher's remarks that Marietta Borough is "a small community of 2,300 souls, with no industry, many of whose residents are on a fixed income," this levee project sounds like an unnecessarily bad idea. It would be far less of a financial burden on the citizens of this state--and a far better idea for Marietta residents' continued health and prosperity--if the General Fund were raided and those fixed-income residents were all bought nice houses in Mount Joy instead.
It'd be morally wrong to spend our tax money in that way, of course, but it's more wrong to raid the public treasury for poor people to live dangerously and get sentimental. If you want to do that with your own money, go for it, but the citizens of Pennsylvania ought not be forced to sponsor such an unwise endeavor.
