Richard,
this seems to happen everywhere. I worked maintenance at the muni course i grew up on , an RTJ course, Durand Eastman Park GC (which was sold by Monroe County to a man who used to be a professional at one of the Parks courses - there are 3 parks courses in Monroe County - back in the day and now lives happily down in FL and returns to see his courses twice a year, if you're lucky) and I saw first hand, the struggles of a super at a muni. With an 8 man (including himself) crew, all of which are retired Kodak workers, and equipment that is older than I am, he is using little to no chemical fertilizers and/or pesticides. There are no bunkers anymore (haven't been since the 60s from what I'm told) and the course retains its original clay drainage tiles, that is if it already hasn't been a major problem, enough to get the attention of the 'crew'.
Well, what did they decide to do ~5 years ago? Build a new clubhouse and grill! Now, this would be nice if it generates money (which it does) and the revenue created was then returned to the course itself. Instead, recently, the course bought new (to them) carts, in hopes of explaining why green fees rose.
I can not state that this happens all over the country, but I would imply that it does. It's nice that they are building new maintenance facilities, but the money could be spent in much better ways than just the facilities them self. I wonder what the "other improvements" are? Surely irrigation improvements are a good step, but drainage in a climate such as Washington is just as important wouldn't you say?
On another note, it's GREAT to see that municipalities understand how much of an asset muni courses are to the public and that there are some municipalities that are investing in them. The way that I understood the first Bailout, it was made clear that not one cent could be spent on golf courses, so that means that this is not any Federal money and it is a conscious decision of Seattle. I hope its a step in the right direction...