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 Phoenicia Times. 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.