Stop Our Spendthrift Government

Our various governments, be they city, county, state or federal, are purely management entities, charged with the task of maintenance. They are like (and often are) corporate entities.

Normal corporate entities must show fiscal responsibility, or they cease to exist. They must be innovative, and provide value for money.

Our government entities, however, have abandoned all pretence of considering fiscal responsibility, believing, because history has told them that this is true, that all they need to do is require citizens to dig deeper into their pockets.

Furthermore, our state government does not consider some of the wider effects their tweaks to the taxation system can produce. An example is the increased sales tax on alcohol. Liquor stores and restaurants now have to account at two separate tax rates. This is a software and logistics nightmare, and most of these businesses have had to call in their software manufacturers to rig a change. Unfortunately, the money the establishments were forced to spend did not go into Maryland pockets, but to Redmond, OR, Mountain View, CA, and Springfield, VA. The proposed increase in gas taxes will have a similar effect.

We are still in recession: the last thing any responsible government entity should do is increase taxes. Their perceived need to increase or create new taxes is because their existing tax revenue has fallen, reflecting the diminished income of the population. If the population has decreased income, increasing taxation has a double negative effect, and stunts any form of economic growth. In fact, it creates a self-destructive cycle, as incomes will diminish, therefore income and sales tax will diminish, creating demands for new or higher taxation.

The profligacy of our government is bewildering.Two stories broke recently in Cecil County.

From CecilDaily.com: “State Highway Administration officials informed the Cecil County commissioners last week that by the end of the summer a new, galvanized-steel center median barrier will separate eastbound and westbound lanes of Route 40.”

Anyone who has driven Route 40 through Cecil County knows that the median is wide, and the likelihood of a vehicle crossing that median is very low. Also consider, before I-95 was opened, Route 40 was the main road down the East Coast, and, even though traffic volumes were higher then, crash barriers were never a priority. When this was discussed with the county commissioners, they were told, “The construction of the barriers was mostly funded with federal, earmarked funds which could not be used for other projects.”

The second story relates to Port Deposit. The Maryland State Highway Administration has dedicated $1 million to fix drainage problems in Port Deposit. Yes, Port Deposit has drainage problems, caused by rainwater coming down the granite cliffs behind the town. However, this is not a new problem; it has existed for about 200 years.

Bearing in mind that port Deposit has about 650 residents, that is over $1,500 per resident, and it’s all coming out of your taxation and tolls.

At this moment there should be NO increases in any form of taxation. The governments must learn to tailor their expenses to less than revenue, and work on creating a surplus.

This is not a political or partisan issue, it is a fact of life. Failure to reduce taxes, thereby increasing growth, can only result in a meltdown similar to the Greek, Portuguese and Irish economies.