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Opinion
Stimulus vs. morality
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Councilman Aaron Kircher was excoriated by his fellows and the City Manager at the last McCook City Council meeting. Aaron started the perfect storm when he stated that it was against his principles to ask for unneeded largess from the huge spending bill currently passed by the House and Senate but not yet cleared by the joint committees that will iron out the final compromise.
Aaron's fellow Councilman, Jack Rogers called his thinking na*ve! The very idea of not getting the City's extra spending needs registered with the Nebraska Department of Roads so we could get in the front of the line to receive "free money"!
NDOR presumably will be holding the money spout when the U.S. Congress authorizes the flood of cash. Other responses from Aaron's peers included the venerable "If we don't take the money then North Platte will." I love that one! It is related to "I want to because everyone else is doing it!" Aaron's response was along the lines that he has never been a fan of that sophomoric justification for action.
City Manager Fritch's response to the caterwauling was something like "If we get the funds from the stimulus package, they will free up money for other projects!" Ah yes, extra spending. Free money but never any thought to using the stimulus package windfall to reduce property taxes for the folk.
Gazette reporter Lorri Sughroue reported the melee in the Council Chambers with a balanced article. One reader also responded that he too agreed with Councilman Kircher on his moral stand and that for sure the reader would be voting for Aaron next time he ran for office. It is a shame that all the taxpayers in McCook weren't there to watch their representative government in action.
The nexus grandeurs that precipitated all the action came when it was revealed that the city staff, apparently without input from the council, had responded to a request by NDOR to forward any projects that had been engineered and could be ready for bid in a short time frame. Staff had indeed sent several projects to NDOR. Those were construction projects that had been delayed for funding in future budgets, or possibly in case a bundle of money (hopefully an "earmark"?) should happen to come down the pike.
And that was the point that Councilman Kircher was attempting to make. He stated, and rightly so, that we really didn't need the money at this point in time. What he feared, and of course what happened, was that all these new needs would be aggregated at state level and forwarded to Washington. Then the Democrats could make the case that "See the states and cities are in dire need of infrastructure repairs and therefore this giant spending bill must be passed." Somehow the big pork/earmark advocates neglect to mention that "Oh by the way it is essential that you reelect me because from the goodness of my heart I am sending all this 'free' money your direction."
Should the city staff have forwarded those unfunded projects to NDOR? The answer is of course YES. McCook, Red Willow County and every other local governmental entity is trying to provide the best services to their citizens for the least amount of tax money. Any chance to share in the largess of free federal money they must also jump on like a duck on a June bug. Never mind that there may be strings attached. Just remember everybody else is doing it and that makes it right.
Councilman Kircher's assertion that McCook really doesn't need the money at this time is true and carries the weight of morality in its correctness. That is the way the budget process works on state, city and local levels where the State Constitution requires that the budget be balanced every year. In 12 budget cycles while serving on the County Board and City Council I learned that each subdivision of the city or county submitted its projected need for funds for the year. All those needs are aggregated and then weighed against the projected revenues for the same time frame. Always the needs are greater than the funds to pay for them and through a painful process, some projects are delayed into the future and some are rejected outright. An ongoing alternative for the council/board is to raise taxes, but such a move normally causes an outcry from the taxpayers who often remember at the next election. Both the City of McCook and Red Willow County are fortunate to have council/boards that can say no and who set tax levies that are less than the maximum allowed. Councilman Kircher is correct, "We don't really need the money." If we truly needed it the council could have raised the tax levy and extracted it from the taxpayers.
Another aspect of the arrival of a large amount of unexpected revenue into the city's budget is that those funds will all get spent. After all, isn't that the intent of Congress, get the economy rejuvenated by spending great amounts of "free" money? Then what happens next year? The city staff will point out that we "needed" that amount of spending last year and of course the new elevated level of spending should continue. Somehow there is a ratchet effect, spending, therefore taxes, can only go up, never down. Now if the new-found largess was returned to the taxpayers by a reduction in property taxes I would be more in favor of accepting the new federal money.
One can bet that wouldn't happen. Hang in there Councilman Kircher, Mr. Frugal; you are thinking along the right line.
That is the way I saw it.