Government Spending Tyranny

Would Mecklenburg taxpayers ever DEMAND efficient use of tax dollars?  If so, many of the painful cuts could be avoided.  Obstacles:  1.  The people who do not want the cuts are the people with all the relevant information:  the staff.  Yes, the budget is public record, but no, the insight is not.  2.  Every dollar spent has a passionate or powerful advocate in our community.  What would be required to cut spending is to tell that advocate, “No.”  The Elected Ones would prefer to avoid this conflict:  to get along, go along.  3.  The people protecting spending are sophisticated, organized, and experienced.  The people who want more efficient spending and no tax increases are poorly informed, disorganized, and inexperienced.  The people in the Middle East are demanding an end to despotism.  It must take tyranny to get people to act.  I certainly feel the tyranny of the intractable spending.

Heartless budget cutting?

1. Is the current level of government spending justified? Instead of saying, “Raise taxes,” consider, “Get the waste out.” Demand that money be spent more effectively.

2. Local governments do not aim to allocate resources to efficient producers. Their goal is to maintain a “service level” and this is how they evaluate themselves.

3. The only cost containment device: whether aggregate spending will require a tax increase.

4. A clever government budgeteer can deflect budget cuts with proposals to cut only sacred cows: police, teachers, street repair. The electorate will cry, “Woe is me! Don’t do that! OK, you can raise taxes.”

5. Yes, our society is judged by how we treat our most vulnerable. I hear that line frequently at budget talks, but not so often at talks discussing the humane treatment of prisoners, the indigent elderly, the mentally ill, and children of negligent parents.