DOGE paid a visit to Margate recently.
The so-called Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) clawed back a $500,000, US taxpayer-funded grant for upgrades and repairs to Lucy The Elephant.
The iconic landmark was built in 1882 as a Real Estate marketing scheme. A 60 ft, wood and tin elephant to help sell plots of sand in Margate.
Lucy Executive Director Rich Helphant expressed disappointment in the news.
All of us at Lucy—as well as Senator Booker, are stunned.
NOTE: Margate taxpayers still funding $1.5 million for new, $3.5 million Lucy ‘visitors center’.
Seth Grossman of Liberty and Prosperity on Lucy Funding, WPG Radio:
According to Charity Navigator, SAVE LUCY COMMITTEE INC Director salaries:
Richard Helfant, Executive Director: 2023 salary $133,825.
Jeremy Bingaman, Education Director: 2023 salary $70,000.
Social Media comments:
Mark Delaney: Lucy was closed for 15 months at cost of $2.4mil for restoration two years ago. Now another $500k for interior fixes. That’s $3 mil in just over two years at mostly taxpayer expense. Lucy is a cash cow for the people involved, not the elephant.
Luke Hunter: $500k of taxpayer money is crazy. I’m all for Lucy but she should be paid for by donations for all the people who love her.
Glenn Cippon: Crumbling infrastructure, failing bridges, failing roads, rising homelessness, and outrageous prices for everything, and this is what our tax dollars are being spent on. Sorry, but it’s a local attraction that needs to be paid for by the local community.
Lisa Tatusko Gribbin: I love Lucy as much as anyone but come on.. $500k? Meanwhile, my kids don’t even have substitute teachers in their schools. Can we focus on actual priorities in this state? There are so many other things that money can be allocated to that are more deserving.
Kevin Cassano: Tell Governor Murphy to stop harboring criminals who don’t belong here. No state has a right to receive federal funding. Maybe New Jersey can pay for it instead of billions toward a failed wind farm initiative that nobody wanted.
Mark Legault: Lucy is a novelty roadside attraction. A local tourist spot. Let the local community fund it. Yes, Lucy is a designated national landmark, but it’s still a roadside tourist attraction (wikipedia). National Historic Landmarks are mostly private-owned and locally funded.
Kristin Lynn $500,000. You can build a lot of Elephants for that kind of money. Someone is pocketing the money that’s the problem.
Linda Santucci Wonderful idea. Do it on your dime. The rest of the country isn’t going to Lucy. As much as a Jerseyite, who’ve longed appreciate this site, we have bigger elephants to fry at this point in time.
Patricia Ryan Payne Let Cory Booker use his own money for the upkeep of this roadside attraction.
See press release below.
A huge THANK YOU to Downbeach Buzz for exposing hidden corruption and illustrating loud and clear how elected officials ( Murphy/Booker) are enormously generous with our MONEY!
Lucy should fund itself after paying those absurd salaries of the benefiting employees.
That poor woman who donated all of her funds to assist in the new center, etc… I bet she wasn’t told the entire financial story of the elephant operation? I thought I had heard it all!
An extra thank you to DOGE for bringing common sense to the spending of our hard earned money.
The generations to come will appreciate all these unpleasant and necessary steps to curb the outrageous spending.
JW- Ventnor City
If Lucy needed more funds, why did they PURCHASE the property across from Lucy? Where is that money?
Lucy has been a financial drain on Margate taxpayers for years.
Commissioners saying it’s supported by financial donations. What a crock. Good for DOGE to take the money away – maybe we should call on Washington to bring DOGE to Margate.
End the corruption .
Regarding the withdrawn federal funding for Lucy, it is regrettable that the allocated funds were pulled back.
However, as I see it, this was not a “generous gift” by the senator nor was it a “breach of contract” to claw it back. The money was simply a transfer of taxpayer money allocated to the Senator by Congress, to distribute to projects within his constituency as he sees fit (with the appropriate oversight and approvals).
The taxpayer money doled out to Senators creates valuable goodwill for these senators, no doubt improving their odds for re-electability.
The “gift”, if it is one, was from us taxpayers who have no say in where this money ultimately gets distributed (gifted). Perhaps this money can be spent on needed infrastructure in the state, or in a small way, be returned to NJ taxpayers to offset the onerous federal tax burden.
This being said, I agree with other commenters that Lucy is a beloved attraction at the Jersey Shore that should be funded by private sector through ticket sales and fundraisers.
And, lets avoid the subtle “digs” at the Department of Government Efficiency. Maybe our Downbeach officials could take a lead from the feds and create their own DOGE, so our own tax burden can be lessened.
Lucy should be sold to the highest bidder and privatized. Credit the sale price back to the Margate taxpayers.
As for employees, I assume nice summer jobs for high schoolers and college break students, as this attraction is seasonal.
Supervisory positions and property management to be determined by new owners.
I have no problem with the Feds giving Lucy half a million dollars. It’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to all the billions spent on wasteful projects.
And I don’t have a problem with Rich Helfant’s salary. If you ever saw how much time and effort he puts into that job, you’d understand.
The real idiot in this story is Booker. He spends 25 hours ranting and raving against the Trump administration on the Senate floor and doesn’t think anything will happen? Well. guess what. All of a sudden DOGE finds a bunch of his pet projects and deems them wasteful.
The only thing Booker accomplished was getting funding for his projects cancelled.
In the future, Booker should stick to appearances on The View.
Every federal government employee will tell you “but the project only costs (fill in the blank with a number)…it’s just a drop in the bucket in terms of the total budget”. As the old adage says “take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” DOGE this stupid project to death. Let the locals save all of their pennies and fund whatever they want for Lucy.
Social liberal and fiscal moderate here. Very sorry the funding has been rescinded, but not disappointed. There are far more worthy recipients of our tax dollars particularly in an era when debt is skyrocketing and programs supporting the much less fortunate are being cut. We collectively need be be better wardens of our finances which means we need to hold our representatives to account.
We ALL want to help improve our communities but we need to look beyond them to assure that these “wants” are not at the expense of others “needs”.