Out of Touch

Those who represent us seem to be out of touch. Not all, but most. Recently I heard one of them on the radio talking about services and taxes. He said that the people want their schools funded and their roads fixed. But they are not willing to pay for any of this. If it is said on the radio, it must be true.

I guess you can fool some of the people some of the time.

Back in 1984, nearly a quarter century ago the people of California voted for the California state lottery. The slogan to pass this initiative was “our schools win too.” The ballot measure was sold to voters and residents that a percentage of the lottery money would fund schools. Well, that is exactly what happened. But what they did not tell us was that right after implemented the pre-lottery funding for California schools would be cut to offset the new source of funding from the new lottery. The long-term net addition to schools funding was essentially zero and a new self-sustaining bureaucracy was created. The lottery that was supposed to be a win for our schools was not.

The voters in the State of California have been voting for propositions to increase funding for highways in this state. I have lost count of how many ballot measures we have actually voted for to save our highways, our infrastructure and our schools. The voters have continuously voted for an extra quarter penny for sales tax, or a parcel tax, gas tax or a bond measure. We have been voting for nearly twenty years. During that time we it was determined that these funds that were supposed to be destined for roads, bridge repair, low classroom sizes or something very specific only to see those fund end up in the state’s general fund. It got so ridiculous that voters even needed to vote on a ballot measure that said that when voters vote for better roads or better schools or better something , that those funds cannot be diverted to the general fund. This, even though the funds were voted on to handle a specific problem or item in the first place. The biggest joke is that the same political action committee (the road construction lobby) that shills for better roads every election begins anew after every election for additional road funding. Their latest pitch is for a “private public partnership.” Translated: Toll roads. So after nearly 20 years of funding requests and the most recent a bond measure that mortgaged our children’s future to save crumbling infrastructure, they want toll roads which will require us to pay for the roads that we voted to pay for in the first place.

In my town they recently completed an addition to city hall after it was remodeled and expanded 20 years earlier. There were no real issues with the old city hall although it may have been slightly dated and a little small to handle the bloated bureaucracy that it was designed to handle when it was last refurbished. No public vote. Nothing more than the city council public hearings that no one knew about or had time to attend funding its expansion. A few years later it became apparent that the city’s library, across the street from city hall, needed replacement. Originally built in the late 1950’s it was long obvious that the small, dingy, and out-of-date facility needed to be rebuilt. The city next to ours with about 1/3 the population of our town had already made plans to replace their library. This city does not have a formal city hall and you would be hard pressed to find their offices. Our city had asked our voters to approve in one vote a sales tax increase and in another parcel tax to fund the library. Fed up with their hands always out for more funding, the citizens of our city voted the ballot measure down both times. Finally, the city realizing that the voters were fed up decided to build a scaled down version of the library. The new library finally broke ground and is being built about five years after the city hall had been completed. Moral of the story: If you want to build the Taj Mahal of a city hall with little or no public feedback and fill it with additional employees, no problem. But a new facility that will benefit the entire community requires years of votes and your dollars in the form of a parcel tax to get it done.

Politicians are now asking for more taxes from their constituents while those very constituents have difficulty with day to day expenses. When will it stop? We are about 225 years into the founding of our country. As citizens we pay at least 50% of our incomes in taxes after sales tax, state income tax, Federal income tax, social security tax, licenses, tolls and fees . That plus all the school fundraisers and cars washes for sporting equipment that are funded as part of a normal education in other parts of the country. Embarrassing. Critics of our low taxes say other countries pay more. Well, other countries were not built on the foundation of innovation and the ability to get ahead while keeping most of what you make. Other countries also have more to show their citizens for the high taxes they pay. Better care for the elderly, health insurance, a decent education and quality public transportation systems are just a few examples of what other countries get for their tax dollars.

In the last ten years in this country we have seen a stock boom that brought prosperity through sales tax, capital gains tax and income tax. We have experienced a building boom throughout the nation that had not been seen since the end of World War II. These events reaped hundreds of billions if not trillions of tax dollars into state and Federal coffers. Still our politicians cannot fix our roads, cannot fund our schools to decent levels and continue to ask us for more. They spend irresponsibly and vote to appoint commissions to give themselves raises. Funding for programs are not granted on need or merit but rather by those lobbyists who wield the most power and have the most influence. We have forgotten about what is right and what is needed. This became apparent when our politicians, who are supposed to represent us, say that is we that are out of touch.