Where O Where – Does The Money Come From?

In our fast paced world there seems to be some ignorance as it relates to government and money.  The Congress of the United States of America alone is allowed to actually coin money in the US.  All other governments must “steal” money and this is known as taxation.Taxes are known by two general names those being taxes and fees.  Some see a difference but I do not as they do the same thing but between the two there is one big difference.  Taxes, as such, must have voter approval while fees can be raised at any time with out any approval from the voter.

In either case both of these items raise money from the population in order fro a government to pay for the services it needs or thinks it needs.  With the view that “all things are justifiable” it is fair to say that there are fees and taxes that are not needed.  Try though to have a government abandon or end a fee or tax and you could wait for a century or more.

This is not an exaggeration of any sort at all; consider the Spanish American War of 1888.  In order to pay for this war the Congress of the United States of America enacted a telecommunications tax on all long distance calls.  The ware was paid for by 1920 but the tax was not lifted until the first part of the 21^st century or about one hundred and five years.  Billons of dollars collected and guess what – no one really knows what Congress did with the money as the 1888 war was paid for and the money not returned to the ratepayer.  This didn’t keep congress form spending it though, you just cannot find on what they spent it for.

One of the reasons always given in raising fees or taxes for any thing is stated something like this “it has been <number of years> since we last raised it” or “other cities, towns or counties have higher fees”.  It is my view that increasing fees or taxes just because it has been a while or some other place charges more for the same service is not good governance.  Good governance demands that the fee or tax be based on real costs of eh service being paid for with salaries being no more than 25% of what ever service is being provided.  All to often salaries take 50% or more of the fee, which raises the next point.

Be cognizant of where the money comes from, while it is true some monies come from other governments in the form of non-interest loans or some to the vehicle all money comes from the people.  Constructing a fee structure to get the most from “the rich” violates the constitutional guarantees of the poor.  If fees and taxes are so high that a person on a twenty thousand dollars year salary cannot afford the tax or fee, then that tax or fee is two high and this goes for accumulation of taxes and fees.  For it is real easy to forget that your tax district charges are added to other tax districts so the accumulation becomes so high that lower income persons have to move.  This makes for a fun time at the council chamber “oh the tax to high, well then move”. They would have moved but you, the evil incarnate government “I can afford it so everyone can” took the very money that they need in order to move.

Also be aware that 25% of your constituency never gets a raise in what they make for income.  Their employer will tell them how good they are but not pay them anymore than the year before.  You up the tax or fee and they have to cut back on what they spend money for if the fee gets to high and 50% of your population in your jurisdiction cut back the economy in your town, city, county or state either bottoms out or goes into recession.

The normal governmental reactions to come up with a program to take assist the lower income persons, which if the fees or taxes were not so high would not be needed.  Though you would not be able to get political mileage out of it think of this value: a community so constructed that everyone in all walks of life can afford to live there.

Rich people will demand protection from the lower classes which defies the Constitution and that namely is this.  All people are equal some are not more or less important than others but all people stand on an equal footing.  This footing is removed if 25 % of your population needs assistance because you, yes you, have run up the fees to “squeeze” the rich”.  Squeezing a person simply because they have money is poor overnice at best insuring that lower income people can afford the fee or tax is good governance at worst.

Sherman

Politics, Governance – Words Really Do Matter

Words convey thoughts, ideas, possible polices or practices and great, if not extreme, care should be exercised by governing officials in the proper use of words.  All to often care is the last thing taken for a walk and odd, yet predictable, things can and do happen,

Comments made in private may prejudice others against you or indicate that your mind is already made up prior to the public hearting on an item.  Since all decisions are to be made in the glare of public debate you will need to declare your bias at the public hearing. Or it may lead others to declare their opposition to an idea, policy or practice that you may wish to have or affect in the future.  While it is all well and good to declare a bias it is not a very good idea to be impartial to the point where other s on a council or a board leave you out of the discussion.

Comments at a public meeting, regular, board, joint meetings with other governments or agencies can also have unexpected yet predictable results.  Keeping trees is normally considered a good thing.  So what happens if during a regular town council meeting a council member does a little “day dreaming”?  If the council member says “I would like to put saving trees on the next agenda and have a fee or fine to take trees down” then do not be surprised if in the next five days every tree in town becomes firewood or lumber.  After all you are talking about restricting liberty as applied top freedom.  A restriction of liberty will put you the elected official on the “bad guy” list.  So in an effort to use their freedom before it becomes lost tree owners city, town, county or statewide take the trees down.  I have yet to hear form any elected person on any government body a plan to pay people for NOT taking down trees.

Comments made in either private or public as related to government employees may cause additional expense.  If your jurisdiction does not have an union to represent them then treat them properly by paying for their insurance, include their families, providing salary adjustments, modest increases to keep up with inflation, giving retirement as training is expensive ad retention is a good thing.  However, if the elected “I know better because I run a business” official says, “we need to rain expenses and I thing we should cut (pick one) salaries, insurance, retirement”, The result will be that your jurisdiction employees will become part of some union.  The result is less money to do projects with and more toward the employee and you will be branded, rightly so, evil incarnate.

In each of these cases saying he wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong venue can, will, and does have effects that the elected official did not anticipate.  Outsiders correctly interpreted the direction things are going and in a worse case scenario someone becomes elected to your seat.

Then they can take your place going down the sewer pipe.

Sherman