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Coach Mitch’s REFLECTIONS
You may recall that I am involved in local politics. I ran for County Legislature in 2007. A local town board candidate stopped by last night and asked for some input. The ideas expressed are my own and might be implemented at the local, town level.
Fred,
It was nice speaking to you. This is in response to your request for a few ideas to be used on the campaign trail. See the info re American Solutions. http://www.americansolutions.com/
Taxpayers have never been more ready for some common sense talk that offers some common sense solutions. Every suggestion creates some opposition, but creating the trend toward downsizing government and spending restrictions is the important factor.
Some ideas or themes for your upcoming debate:
Government is ‘big business’ and it should be run that way, using good management principles, seeking higher quality, at lower costs, with greater effectiveness.
Each government program must be necessary. We cannot cut off funding completely for almost anything because it would be like a heroin addict stopping ‘cold turkey.’ However, a phased withdrawal of unnecessary programs will work. Reductions should be ongoing until only ‘necessary’ expenditures are in the budget. ‘Necessary’ is to be construed narrowly and determined in an ethical manner, and not within a political construct, which would be closer to defining ‘necessary’ as a term of art. In other words, the standard is to be truthful, and to not be politically manipulative.
The guiding principles should be: Whom do we serve? What do we value? What do we want to achieve? How do we go from failure to success?
Create a permanent, independent committee for the sole purpose of rooting out wasteful spending. This effort will automatically lead to rooting out abuse; an area that will show how the Democratic Party has manipulated spending. Republican abuse will be apparent also, however Democratic abuse is current.
I would love to have the town charter amended to include the elected Office of Public Integrity. The public could then vote for the person they think would be the best defender of the public’s interest. The fact that 33% of governmental budgets are waste, fraud, and abuse, proves that the current system does not work. TARP is only the latest, good example. Were I at the Constitutional Convention, I would have proposed this idea as the 4th full branch of government. This is the only way to effectively, “bind them with the chains of the Constitution” as Jefferson said. This pre-supposed a Supreme Court that wished to be bound.
Increase coordinated volunteerism with tax breaks and incentives. Volunteerism is the least expensive way to provide services. If we can give incentives to Wal-Mart, we can give incentives to volunteers. The volunteer firefighter’s incentive program is one model, although not nearly good enough. The towns’ Senior Program is doing a good job and is a good recruiting model. A local coordinator was hired at about $42K and she has found 250+ volunteers whose total volunteer man hours were over $350K, equal to 12 fulltime employees. WoW! Get current numbers from them
The town’s Library taxes as much as the Highway Dept. Roads are necessary to go to work and to push economies; libraries are not quite as important. Apply the volunteer model to the library. Addressing the libraries BOD, I gave a comprehensive list of ways volunteers can be involved. This would probably eliminate several jobs or at least not have a need for new hires; however, it means that empire building will end. Budgeted book purchases were $250K, but employment costs were millions. When I grew up, the towns’ library was run completely by volunteers. BTW, libraries do not band together to buy product in larger numbers, to reduce per unit costs. This could be required. The library pays enormous prices for inventory, but will not put on the shelves any donated books, movies, tapes, etc. They say the library has higher quality needs than books made for the public. I asked, “If 10 books of a particular title were donated, what does it matter if some become tattered – throw it away and ask for more donations?” They had no answer. The library sells ‘overstock’ for 50 cents. I suggested volunteers could store the overstock until needed. Everything is computerized. A volunteer could be emailed that a certain title is needed. Citizens doing public service sentences could be putting books on shelves, as could volunteers, etc.
The Highway Dept can look to save tax monies by reevaluating standards, schedules, and only doing work when needed. Example, my entire street was recently repaved. There was almost no damage. There were only a few cracks around a manhole cover and I asked a worker “Why are you repaving when the road is fine?” He said, “It was in the schedule. We do it every seven years, whether it needs it or not.” There may be good reasons for this schedule; I don’t know the consequences of waiting, but it seems wasteful.
Extend the edge of the road by 3-5 feet to create sidewalks/bike paths. An oft heard request is the desire for sidewalks. Sidewalks are expensive and a large part of the cost is the “takings” process. A swath of land must be “taken” from a homeowner and paid for. Instead, level and blacktop 3-5 feet from the edge of the road to the utility pole. This necessitates only needing to get the rights-of-way from government controlled entities, like the utility company, who already has the right-of-way. Little, if any, new homeowner land would be needed/used that does not already have a right-of-way. This is the most cost effective way to create sidewalks.
Ask town employees for their ideas. This is the best way to find efficiencies. All management manuals endorse including employees in creating priorities, in making decisions, in implementation, etc. Bonuses should be paid for implemented ideas. A percentage of the savings can be put into a fund to increase town employee salaries.
Citizens should be actively asked to participate in town committees. I’ve seen the websites of some towns that openly list the committees needing help. This is not done in Bethlehem. Committees are handpicked by the Supervisor, who can stack a committee any way he chooses. Tax incentives could be a basic persuasion technique. However, “democracy” requires participation. People respond to a higher calling. If the Supervisor or Town Board Member asked a town resident to participate, it would be like a call from the President; few citizens would decline. Imagine if a rolling 5% of the town’s households had a representative on a town committee. That’s over 700 volunteers doing the town’s work.
The town’s volunteer coordinator could be the central repository of the town’s volunteering needs. Religious groups, fraternal organizations, clubs, etc. could seek volunteers for activities from the town’s pool, and once volunteers are familiarized with that organization, it would increase the organization’s membership.
An independent citizens committee could be responsible for making recommendations. The committee could be open to any town resident who wants to participate, including students.
Decrease property taxes by 25% over the next 4 years. This is done by instituting metrics, incentives, rightsizing, increasing volunteerism, allocating resources well and reducing abuse
Bethlehem has more police per capita of population than any other town in the county. A first goal would be to bring the Police Dept into line so that Bethlehem is at the bottom of the list in the number of police, instead of at the top, as measured by per capita population.
The Police Dept should not have the “Volcanator” mentality. I’m told this local officer gives out 3000+ summonses per year. The ticketing process is used as an additional source of taxation to fund the police. This disconnects the police from the very people they are meant to serve, and is antithetical to their purpose, namely, to defend a person’s life, his liberty, and his property. One reason ticketing offends people is because it is so obviously a town funding source. If someone is hurt, then the offender can be punished - significantly. If someone is not hurt, there is no logic for punishment, despite the assertion that there is a ‘potential’ for hurt. Potential is not actual. Rather, have a straight-forward Police Tax, just like the sewer, water, library, or highway taxes. Then people know what they are paying for and ticketing can be reduced so police can concentrate on real crimes.
In order to bring in businesses, have the Zoning Board adhere to the original intent of the founders and the NYS constitution. Government is created to ‘defend’ a citizen’s life, liberty, and property. This means that government is supposed to ‘defend’ almost all incursions against a citizen’s property, including incursions by government. In Vermont, a law declares it is state policy for ‘mountain scenery’ to be ‘protected.’ Almost all applications to expand or improve a property are denied. A family must get special permission from the state to improve its home when a new baby arrives, or when a company wants to expand, etc. I’m told that a local zoning board member did not allow McDonald’s to use its corporate colors because it offended the member. A taxpayer I spoke with was not allowed to add a garage because none of his neighbors had a 3-car garage; this, despite all the neighbors saying it was OK with them. The abuse goes on. Allow businesses to run their business and risk their capital, instead of seeking policies that punishes entrepreneurism. High standards will be maintained IF sure punishment is meted out when someone is hurt. The principles of tort law will defend us, if adhered too.
Require the Building Department to ticket upon actual harm rather than on potential harm. I had a code enforcement officer tell me, “I saw a few drops of water in the attic, put on a new roof.” I was informed of the penalties if I didn’t comply within 30 days. Speak to any landlord to learn of the inequities pursued against land owners. At the least, have a grievance process with penalties for abusive building officials.
Taxpayers can be shown how to grieve their property taxes properly. I gave such a class with Jared King. When walking, voters remembered our advertisements and we thus accrued a good deal of credibility. I seek for taxpayers to pay their correctly determined, fair amount of tax. This will not reduce total taxes, but it will make citizens feel like they got a square deal and you will be on the side of the angels.
Schools take 61% of the budget. I’m told teacher’s salaries are about 97% of the total, although I have not verified this. If correct, that is outrageous, especially for the product that we get. Compare the Bethlehem student, not to other capital district students, where they fare well, but to Korean, to Singaporean, German, or even to Romanian students. US students must take a year of remedial study when going to Romanian colleges, a third world country. When comparing to other industrialized nations, our students fail miserably. http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm Private school teachers are paid less but achieve better results. Public school teachers are a product of their education, which has a particular point of view and agenda. Salaries should be structured to meet free market standards. Reduce public teacher salaries to those of private schools, and raise their salaries when our students achieve results like their international competition. Turn to a full year school schedule, without raising teacher salaries. This will have the most profound educational effect. Specialized volunteer tutoring can be instituted within each neighborhood. A committee could read the books being suggested for appropriateness of material. When the argument occurs, “Well, what standard is going to be used?” the answer is, “An appropriate standard that is aimed at creating good scholarship and creative, critical and independent thinking, and to, at minimum, be at the same level as international standards.” There is ample evidence that our education system is flawed. The BOE would be held to the same standard as other government officials. The teacher’s and administrator’s unions would be viewed as ‘special interest’ groups with the suspicion that this implies.
Endorse the creation of a Civics course, to be taught at each grade level and to the general citizenry. The fundamentals of Constitutionalism would be the curriculum. “Originalism” would be taught, as well as it’s opposite theory, the “living document”, the currently predominating view. As a “living document” the philosophy of ‘no philosophy’ rules, and anything can be justified, making the constitution moot and resulting in Statism. With “Originalism” the presupposition is that your population is morally based, allowing a philosophy of maximum freedom, and that there be only enough government sufficient to create some order and comity, so as to prevent anarchy. Let the better philosophy win. In an honest contest, there is no contest. I find it interesting to note that, at the time of the drafting, the founders and the voting public knew about the ‘Rights of Man’, and felt such confidence in the presumption that all succeeding generations would know these obvious ‘truths’, that the founders did not feel the need to write them into the original document. The voting public, however, did not trust government (men) and thankfully insisted in their inclusion. I cannot imagine the sort of Statist entity we would now have had the Bill of Rights not been included in the Constitution. – I would also like to see a ‘Life Skills’ course. This would entail letting seniors know about those basic needs of every citizen, balancing a checkbook, the proper way to count change, understanding the vagaries of credit and how to get and read a credit report, types of interest, certain basic legal principles, basic contract law, tenant’s rights and responsibilities, preparation to get a loan, car insurance, saving money and the miracle of compound interest, the philosophy of community involvement, basic morals and ethics, etc. When a Rotarian, I suggested a course of this type, to be sponsored by the Rotary. My local chapter was excited by the idea. Of course, it was promptly turned away by the school.
A Micro Loan program could be instituted, like an SBA, with the aim of helping create a town of successful entrepreneur’s. Nothing could be better than to have less of a ‘state worker’ mentality and more of the independent thinking of a successful entrepreneur, who, like the pioneers, banding together to help a new resident erect their home or barn or gather their crop, know that their success is due, in no small measure, to their fellow townsfolk. This would build comity and community.
Advance a “Wise Use” agenda for the environment. While some regulation is appropriate, http://www.heartland.org/full/16832/Can_We_Afford_To_Squander_Our_Resources_Through_Our_Reliance_on_Junk_Science.html , we must also have some appropriate oversight. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a businessman who was not allowed to build a significant new facility, losing 100’s of jobs, because a young, over enthusiastic bureaucrat viewed a bit of water on the construction site as a “pond” housing pollywogs. The entire site was shut down to ‘save’ the environment. I was told by a building inspector that I had to put in drainage piping, costing over $5000, because rain water was accumulating in a 3’ ‘pond’ and “could create a hazardous condition.” He only backed off when I proved that the water had been absorbed into the ground within 24 hours, eliminating the ‘pond.’ This is government run amok and is very, very common.
Create an Oversight Commission, to review decisions made by government officials. It could Sunset upon a citizens referendum every two years. Residents would sit in judgment of government’s decisions and decide if they are fair, just, and appropriate. Monies would be allocated to bring suit. After three egregious violations, an official would be retrained or relieved. Suitable protections can be built in for those suggesting that we are overturning lawfully constituted officials, but I am mindful of the Declaration of Independence, “He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is US.” Government must be held accountable. If government will not defend people, then people have the right to defend themselves. Politician’s who think otherwise are on the wrong side of the history yet to be made in America.
Join with other towns to create a united front in opposition to unfunded mandates at the state and federal level. Encourage our state and congressional legislators to not vote for items outside of the Originalist constitutional construct, i.e. how Madison and Jefferson viewed ideas. Create the educational information showing legislators why and how a proposal is not Originalist. Propose that legislators retract law that is not conforming to Originalist constitutional precept. This is especially important as I am told that we are potentially on the verge of having another constitutional convention. Only two more states are needed to ratify for a national convention call to be required. Who knows what havoc will ensue when radical liberals have their mandate to “fix” US. G-d was good to US once, when he brought together men of character, who created a system where free men could advance on their merit. Will he again shine his countenance, or will radical egalitarianism prevail, to the detriment of all, excepting the few in charge? What then will be for the US, “the last, great hope of mankind”?
These thoughts are just off the top of my head.
I don’t really care about the political realities. My goal is to endorse that which I believe is good, righteous, and just. I want my elected officials to live up to the oath that they took; to uphold the Constitution.
If a legislature passes something that is not constitutional, or if a judge upholds something that is not constitutional, it is incumbent upon an office holder to object and do what he feels is just, despite any consequences. An office holder’s obligation, or the duty of any citizen, is no different than that of a solder, i.e. to do that which will defend the constitution. Just like a solder, who is obligated not to follow an extra-legal order, a citizen should also act when confronted with a corruption of the constitutional ideal. Hamilton created the Bank of the US and the NY Stock Exchange; great achievements rife with the potential for corruption. Yet, Hamilton felt it incumbent that, as a public official, he hold himself to the highest ethical standards, and was never accused of any dishonesty when building these institutions. That, Hamilton felt, was the public due.
As regards your upcoming candidates debate, pointing out a few missteps in the budget will get a few points, but folks have heard it all before and they are inured to these nostrums. However, if in the few minutes you have, you are able to espouse big ideas, then you have a chance to excite people. People will follow someone, even a political unknown, who offers, “Change you can believe in.”
Good luck.
Mitchell Goldstein
