The Spokane Record

The news of the passage of the health care insurance legislation is disturbing.  How good a thing is it if the Senators who voted for it did so because of the things they were able to get the government, our government, to give to their constituents?  The Senators votes were for sale and the votes were sold.  Once again I am impressed by the lack of integrity, honesty and character of political leaders in the United States.  It is business as usual, government benefits for sale.  Our system is not based upon reason.  It is not based upon what is right and what is wrong.  It is based on power and how much a person will sell his power for.  We are a culture based upon the ethic that the “end justifies the means.”  We simply do not know any different these days.  Our world is a judgment of power, not a judgment of justice or morality, or right and wrong.

Ponder this. Certain county and city elected officials want to use $4.3 million of ConservationFutures Tax revenues for the purchase of the Downtown YMCA. The YMCA is to be torn down. It will cost $850,000 to tear it down. The YMCA and the demolition money will go away, into the ether.

Along the south bank of the Spokane River these officials are going to throw away the value of the building and the cost of demolition. The money for this will simply vanish. It will be the same as these officials going to the public’s bank and withdrawing $4.3 so that they can burn each dollar bill as a sort of celebration of Riverfront Park.

There something wrong with this, really wrong! Public officials cannot engage in a “gross waste of public funds.” And, that’s what this is a gross, very gross, waste of public funds.

And, it gets worse. The officials will be engaging in an act of malfeasance. They might even be personally liable.

Today I did some shopping. I went to a bookstore and bought some books. I paid $59.99 for the books and in addition I paid a sales tax of 8.7% or $5.22. We are used to paying sales taxes in the state of Washington. I was struck by the amount, though. These days I am on a fixed income so I am watching my expenditures.

Next, I went to the grocery store and bought some food — some buns, dog bones, potatoes, sausage – and I got a bag refund of five cents. My bill was $17.47. No taxes, no sales taxes were due. Food is a necessity. People have to have food so there is no tax, at least in Washington and at least for now.

But then walking home from the store I got to thinking. Thinking about taxes – this is where it all fell apart.

I remembered that the city of Spokane, where I live, is going to significantly increase fees for sewer services. My guess is that the cost of my sewer services will go up by about $20 a month. But that’s not the whole of it. My city taxes are also going to go up – up by $5.00.

The city charges a utility tax on sewer services. The tax is $.20 on the dollar. However, since the city also charges a tax on that tax, and then a tax that tax, and then pay tax on that tax, the tax is really $.25 on the dollar. The calls this “grossing up the tax.” The utility tax, really a sales tax, is a 25% sales tax.

How does the city get away with this? It balances its budget by taxing city utility services as high as it possibly can do so without creating a revolution. Right now, my fellow citizens in the city of Spokane must be content to pay the city of Spokane a sales tax of $.25 on the dollar for all city utility services.

When I think of it, I can hardly believe it. What a generous group of people we are – probably half of us would be called poor. I would estimate that over 40% of the 81,000 households in the city of Spokane have an annual income of $35,000 or less. About 22% have incomes of less than $24,000 a year.  We can afford the new expenses, the new taxes, I guess.  Go here.

Several months ago the city Council called for a highest and best use study of the YMCA site. Well, now we have it, and here it is.

You remember the city and the county want to use conservation futures tax revenues for the purchase of the YMCA. Such taxes are to be used for only certain purposes such as the acquisition of open space so as to preserve the open space for future public park use. Regarding the YMCA the County and the city want to use the money, some $4.3 million to purchase the YMCA building which was a functioning YMCA not too long ago and which can be continued to be used for the purposes the YMCA was being used for and for other office purposes. The highest and best use study came to the conclusion that the YMCA property should be used as open space. That is that the YMCA should be torn down.

Think of it, the tax money is to be used to acquire open space but instead the tax money is going to be used to buy a building which is functioning and is going to cost some $5.3 million and then the city is going to spend an additional $830,000 to tear the building down to create open space.

If this goes through the city and County will have wasted about $6 million so as to acquire about three quarters of an acre of land in the city center. If the building is not worth $5.3 million then why would one spend so much money for. If the highest and best use is as open space then why would one not wait until such time as it would be sold as open space.

The only thing that makes sense is that elected officials are going to use public funds probably in violation of the law in order to generate money for the YMCA and in order to spend more money in order to get rid of what is they have purchased. How strange.

I talked with a candidate for city council yesterday. The candidate would like to use the power of government to make the city into something desired in terms of land uses and places for people to gather and live and work. There was talk about redevelopment of this or that neighborhood, land use and comprehensive plan changes to evoke remaking various areas or preventing areas from being remade by “developers,” getting developers to do this or that, and so on. Not a word about the tough issues concerning the immediate and necessary functions city government.

These motivations are not surprising, but I think they are wrong. Government is not capable of providing for these various ever-changing ideas of public “make-overs.” It is only an organization which has come about because of the necessity to provide certain functions – police, emergency services, law enforcement and court, roads, water, sewer, garbage collection, parks, and so on. These are public functions. There is more than enough for local government to do to take care of these things. To make government more than what it really is this is is a waste of precious resources and political energy. 

Also, I am certain that many of the things such political “visionaries” desire would come about if the city ands its leaders would attend to the mundane aspects city management.

For an understanding of how an apologist for the government of good things sees the role of government see Them versus us by Joesph Ellis in the Los Angeles Times.

I think he has the us vs. them turned around.  The politics of good things sees government as the answer to all of our ills, all of our hopes, all of dreams.  Government is viewed as the great understanding father or mother, the great provider.  This is unrealistic and I think is based upon the childish presumption that government is not “us” and instead is an it or a god which is supposed to provide.

By the way, have you taken advantage your government gift (the tax payer’s gift) to you so you can buy a new car or truck, or Hummer?

There are strong forces at work in Spokane to cause the government of the City of Spokane to become ever more involved in actions and expenditures which go beyond what local government is intended to do.  Given the current zeitgeist, the notions that government is the cause and the solution to much of our trouble, the desire to do good so as to take care of the poor, the worker, the environment, the sick, the halt —  none of what is happening is surprising.  This summer and fall the people of Spokane are going to have an opportunity to vote to take action all these fronts.  They, the voters, will, in essence, be told they can create a New Jerusalem right here in Spokane by telling the government to provide a host of rights to various deserving people and their neighborhoods.

Envision Spokane’s “Community Bill of Rights” fascinates.  It is a near perfect expression of what we have come to these days — an understanding that government is not us, is something else, maybe controlled by those who are not us, the bad guys, the rich guys, the corporations, the evil ones, and that all  that has to be done is to take control of it and tell it to do good things.

What is to become of us?  What are we becoming?

No matter what you desire, what you wish for, think government should do for you or your friends it all comes down to economics.  In the final analysis, whatever is sought, whatever electors cause their government to do in the exercise of their power over the state, the final judgment is inevitable.  It is starkly certain.  I is something which will come about no matter what.  It all comes down to economics.  Simple economics — is there enough money coming in to pay for what it is people exercising the power to control the state will cause the government to do.  The “good thing” will only be possible and provided for if there is revenue coming in to pay for the good thing.

The day of reckoning may be delayed.  Money for essential things, boring things like maintenance, keeping up a level of service, may be put off.  Funds may be borrowed from other funds, assets sold, employees paid to retire, and there may be interesting accounting gimmicks or loopholes.  In the end, however, the day of reckoning will come because if the good thing costs money money will have to come in to meet the need.

One need only to sit back and wait.  But, those who care would prefer to come up with a plan to make the good thing sustainable or if not, end it.  There is great discussion about sustainability.  The best way to get started on the   road of sustainability is to ensure understand that good things need to have funds to pay for them.  If they do not have funds then obviously the good thing is not sustainable and is a drag on the economy within which the good things are supposed to be extant.

Again, it all comes down to economics.

What kind of government can we really have.  A government for needed services or a government for “good things”?

It is quite simple, what sort of government do we want, can we want, can we really have? A government which provides necessary services common to all which cannot be provided by private enterprise? Or, a government generally devoted to a host of “good things.”

The government of services can live within its means. There is a possibility the people, rich and poor, can be fairly taxed to provide for it. 

The government of good things cannot live within its means.  There is no end, no limit, to what is thought to be good things.  And no limit to the claim for tax revenue.  The notion of what is good changes like the weather. As does the claim for ever higher taxes.