Arlington Hts. could have returned money

In today's edition of the Daily Herald I noticed an article headed, “Arlington Heights village vehicles going green.”

While that is commendable, the article goes on to explain that the total grant to the village will be $714,000 but the village only needs to spend approximately half of that amount on the hybrid and electric vehicles.

The village board did, after what the article seemed to portray as much head scratching, manage to figure out ways to spend the rest of the grant.

Given the federal deficit and debt, wouldn't the money have been better returned in an effort to balance the budget or pay down the debt rather than take an “if we don't take it someone else will” attitude.

Imagine the strides that could be made toward achieving those goals if all governmental bodies, whether village, city, county, state, federal or military, would return money granted in excess of what was actually spent on the intended purpose.

Isn't it about time that we replace greed at all levels with patriotism?

David Lackowski

Wheeling