Coal in the
Stocking
You may have noticed we’ve been quiet of late on the
administration of our federal government. Most people, we
think, are now seeing it fairly clearly as the slow-motion
train wreck that it is, derailed by greed, incompetence, ethical
bankruptcy, and the sale of political influence. For us it’s
been an interesting year as we’ve watched the rest of
the country move squarely toward a range of perspectives and
positions long held by The Olive Press. Just as we’ve
always said, this IS the mainstream press, you just read things
here a few years earlier than they appear other places. We’re
proud for instance, to have been the first newspaper in the
United States to report on the Downing Street Memos from British
intelligence, along with a number of other major national
stories this year. We’re depressed though, to have to
report to you it looks like the administration is preparing
the traditional Christmas Eve present nobody wants.
The coming weeks should prove interesting as the Bush administration
seeks to pass the centerpiece of its budget bill before Christmas,
including major hits to Medicaid and student loan funding
while extending recent tax cuts to the wealthy and reduced
tax rates for capital gains and dividend income. It didn’t
happen last month as some lawmakers balked at so doing so,
so soon after deep new cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and
other programs to help the poor. Other pre-Christmas legislative
and spending presents will probably include an extension of
the Patriot Act and a $453 billion defense spending bill which
includes yet another $50 billion for the war in Iraq. Imagine
if we’d been bad this year.
What’s striking about these major spending commitments
is that like the $62 billion committed to the hurricane Katrina
relief and reconstruction effort, no one knows where the money
is going to come from. President Bush has vowed not to raise
taxes or roll back tax cuts made during his first term. Effectively
this means our children and grandchildren will be carrying
these costs and the costs of financing them out of our burgeoning
federal deficit, borrowing from the future to pay for the
present.
On the bright side though, worth noting this week is that
First Brother Neil Bush has joined the Rev. Sun Myung Moon
on parts of a 100-city global tour to promote the billionaire
clergyman’s latest dream, a 51-mile sub-ocean superhighway
under the Bering Straight called the “Peace King Tunnel,”
the Peace King of course being Moon. Moon, a major donor to
conservative causes who says democracy is evil, he is the
Messiah and Caucasians are descended from polar bears, also
owns the flagship conservative newspaper The Washington Times,
the UPI wire service, and a large gun factory. Moon’s
relationship with the President’s family goes back to
his arrival in the US in 1976, when First Dad G.H.W. Bush
was CIA Director. But that, it appears, is a horse of a different
feather. Talk of such matters, according to Moon, is the work
of Satan, who has not by the way, contacted us on the subject.
Meanwhile closer to home, it’s also going to be a difficult
holiday season for Ulster County’s new legislative leadership,
just as it will be for the old, outgoing county leaders. We
are of course very pleased this shift has happened, having
advocated for it almost from this newspaper’s inception.
We’ve also been, for years, among those arguing most
consistently that county spending has been out of control.
And yes, those two issues are very much related and we’re
hopeful the change of leadership will be accompanied by a
new focus on responsibility to the county’s taxpayers.
Financially it appears the government the Democrats will be
inheriting in January is in far worse shape than anyone figured
it was. We have a $300 million county budget with an apparent
$20 million shortfall. If we don’t cut spending or raise
revenues to cover that, every household in the county’s
going to have to ante up with property tax increases. At this
moment and pending consideration of new budget cuts, that
increase looks like 49%. It’s not like the county’s
Republicans didn’t see this coming, in fact one official
described it this way: The train’s going a hundred miles
an hour. They saw the wall. But then they said it’s
an election year, let’s just stay on the gas and hope
for the best.
Our county’s Republican legislators didn’t find
themselves in that position overnight, it took several years
of county government spending $15 or $18 million annually
more than it took in. They covered the difference by, well,
borrowing from the future; now of course the future’s
here. Oh, it was coming anyway, but it did get here $5.6 million
faster this year because of our new jail. One of the things
its arrival means is that our county’s operating financially
by the skin of its teeth, with a scant one-quarter to one-fifth
of the funds available to cover its obligations the state
says it should have on hand. No, we’re not going to
overdraw the checkbook, but neither are we going to win any
financial planning awards. Bad planning, like good planning,
is a matter of accountability or its lack.
The county’s charter commission favors shifting to an
elected, County Executive form of government. We’re
on-board with that, and would love to see a referendum for
it on next November’s ballot. But between now and then
a lot of hard choices are going to need to get made. And in
order to make those choices Ulster County’s going to
need far better leadership then it’s used to seeing,
and far straighter talk than we’re used to hearing.
There is, we think, the political will to shift things toward
a better, more workable government, one that can live within
its means and do, literally, only what we can afford. Last
month’s election showed us clearly that business as
usual isn’t acceptable any more. Starting now it’s
up the county’s Democratic leadership to set a standard
that is. We hope they can do it; it’s not just that
everyone’s counting on it, but that none of us taxpayers
can really afford them to fail.
