Financial Solutions
Last night I attended a meeting with some of our county officials here in the People’s Republic of Maryland. It was in some respects a town hall put on by one of our more courageous county council members. Although originally billed as a forum for the repeal of the county’s revenue cap-read "tax increase" for us-it was more of a work session in which we the people were given the opportunity to offer solutions. How rare it is for government to descend from Mt. Olympus to ask we mere mortals what we think. But desperate times call for even the most unorthodox measures.
Our county, like most states, counties and municipalities across this great land, is having money problems. They call it a revenue problem. We call it a spending problem. We all know there is waste, fraud and abuse in government at every level. We know it is a rare government entity whose spending and confiscation of our money does not increase faster that the rate of inflation, sometimes much faster. Unlike we serfs in the kingdom, when their income decreases the last thing the gods consider is cutting spending. The reason is this. Most people who work in government don’t have to worry about their jobs. If your government "cuts" jobs, usually that means they just don’t fill vacant positions. That is not true everywhere, of course, some states have actually had to reduce size, but most government workers, regardless of performance, are pretty secure. They get their fancy health care plans and their pensions. They are insulated from the pain a bad economy causes all of us.
Here is my rub. We have forgotten who serves who in this country. The government and its employees are supposed to serve us, we do not exist to serve them and meet their every need. In these times that has become starkly evident. We can no longer afford to fulfill the every whim of our rulers and their minions. It is time they began to live like the rest of us. Do our governments want a quick reduction in expenditures that will also save them truckloads of money later on? With the exception of public safety employees, eliminate government pension contributions and put all government employees on high deductible catastrophic health care plans. Final suggestion, without exception, eliminate all public sector unions. Everyone knows that pension and health care costs are bankrupting many government entities just as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are bankrupting the country. It is time that teachers, ditch diggers and pencil pushing bureaucrats live like the rest of us. Be responsible for your own retirement and health care. Worry about your 401K. Make sure your performance justifies your continued employment. There should not be a union and union rules to protect incompetence.
Government exists to serve the people. You don’t hire a housekeeper or a gardener and then pay them more than you receive from your labor or lavish them with benefits that you don’t have. When did it become the rule that public servants are any different? Desperate times.... It is time we rethought not only the role of government but how it is run.
Our county, like most states, counties and municipalities across this great land, is having money problems. They call it a revenue problem. We call it a spending problem. We all know there is waste, fraud and abuse in government at every level. We know it is a rare government entity whose spending and confiscation of our money does not increase faster that the rate of inflation, sometimes much faster. Unlike we serfs in the kingdom, when their income decreases the last thing the gods consider is cutting spending. The reason is this. Most people who work in government don’t have to worry about their jobs. If your government "cuts" jobs, usually that means they just don’t fill vacant positions. That is not true everywhere, of course, some states have actually had to reduce size, but most government workers, regardless of performance, are pretty secure. They get their fancy health care plans and their pensions. They are insulated from the pain a bad economy causes all of us.
Here is my rub. We have forgotten who serves who in this country. The government and its employees are supposed to serve us, we do not exist to serve them and meet their every need. In these times that has become starkly evident. We can no longer afford to fulfill the every whim of our rulers and their minions. It is time they began to live like the rest of us. Do our governments want a quick reduction in expenditures that will also save them truckloads of money later on? With the exception of public safety employees, eliminate government pension contributions and put all government employees on high deductible catastrophic health care plans. Final suggestion, without exception, eliminate all public sector unions. Everyone knows that pension and health care costs are bankrupting many government entities just as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are bankrupting the country. It is time that teachers, ditch diggers and pencil pushing bureaucrats live like the rest of us. Be responsible for your own retirement and health care. Worry about your 401K. Make sure your performance justifies your continued employment. There should not be a union and union rules to protect incompetence.
Government exists to serve the people. You don’t hire a housekeeper or a gardener and then pay them more than you receive from your labor or lavish them with benefits that you don’t have. When did it become the rule that public servants are any different? Desperate times.... It is time we rethought not only the role of government but how it is run.
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