Politics done right

This evening we attended the State of the City address by Duluth Mayor Don Ness.  It was a really upbeat address on all the obstacles the city has overcome – unfunded pension liabilities, sewer overflow problems, street repair backlog, and others.  But Don did not take all the credit.  He praised the City Council for all the work they've done to come up with solutions.  He praised the city employees for all the efforts they have made.  And he praised businesses and citizens for the contributions they have made.

Now the process was not all sweetness and light; there were many disagreements.  But the council and the city administration worked to arrive at solutions rather than gain political points.  If we could only have pragmatic governance at the state and federal levels.

Disclaimer: Don Ness and I are long-time acquaintances.  When he was a city councilor and ran Rep. Jim Oberstar's Duluth office, I would drop in at Oberstar's office about once a month for a chat with Don.  I also had a bit of "clout" because I often wrote for the "Reader Weekly", a local, widely-read newspaper.  I contributed to Don's campaigns, and  I sent him lots of emails with suggestions or comments about city government.  However, I now send him few emails; I figure he has enough feedback and suggestions from hundreds of others.

I think this is how the writers of the Constitution envisioned government.  Most of the towns were smaller than Duluth is now, and even the big cities weren't that much bigger.  Now we have cities bigger than the United States was in 1787.  Some of these are very difficult to manage and are overburdened with competing interests.

Fiscal responsibility is irresponsible

The great hue and cry is that government should be fiscally responsible, live within its means, and pay as it goes.  Oh, yes, and government should not raise taxes; in fact in these times of an economic downturn, government should lower taxes to stimulate business.

Let's see, your kitchen caught fire.  Luckily for you, the fire department arrived quickly and limited the damage to the kitchen.  But you forgot to pay your fire insurance premium and the insurance was canceled.

You could eat out more often, but that would cost you more money than preparing food at home.  For some budgets, that might be fiscally irresponsible.

Your next recourse is to take out an equity loan on your home to pay for the repairs.  That certainly isn't pay as you go on home improvement.

Many people don't realize that we have something similar in government expenses.  Suppose in this time of fiscal austerity that the city didn't have the money to replace its aging fire hoses.  Then when the fire department came to your house some of those aging hoses burst and your whole house burned down.

What about sewer repairs?  Suppose in this time of fiscal austerity that the city didn't replace some of its aging sewers.  As the fire truck drove to your house it was the "last straw" for a big sewer pipe and it collapsed.  Your house burned down, the city lost a fire truck, and the city has a major, major sewer and street repair project on its hands.

Do you think we can count on free will donations to pay for all of this today?  The banks certainly won't be any of these donors.  They will want interest on the loans they make to the city.