Spending Other People's Money | Eastern North Carolina Now

    It's that time of the year when government (cities, towns, school boards and the state) prepare their budgets (actually our budgets) to run government for the people. Governments, at every level, are holding public meetings and cutting deals behind closed doors to determine how much of our money they are going to spend to provide services they think we want. These public budget meetings go largely unnoticed by a public disengaged from the political process. What is striking, however, is no matter what party is in charge of the government they all seem to have the same goal in mind. That goal is to spend as much as they can of somebody else's money. It doesn't matter whether the town or county or school is running a surplus or a deficit. Their goal is to spend more of somebody else's money. It's like our elected government officials have a disease. If there is a surplus, officials of both political parties give little heed to returning some of that money to taxpayers. Instead they try to figure out how to spend this "new-found" money.

    If there is a deficit, almost no thought is given to where they can cut spending, but rather how much they will have to raise taxes so they can spend more. And to what end? It's not to do more for the taxpayers but more likely to grow government, increase power and get reelected. After all, ostensibly giving us more stuff (even though we pay for it) benefits elected officials more than the taxpayers.

    I was talking to a friend the other day who follows local government budgets very closely. He said his local representatives want to give their government employees a raise. After all, they are good, hard working employees and they deserve a raise and we do have a little extra of somebody else's money or we can raise taxes on somebody else just a bit. If we don't give them a raise, they might leave. Do these elected officials think no one will notice? Taxes will only go up a small amount. That's what they thought in Stockton, Calif., before they went bankrupt! In Stockton, employees and government officials were making five and six figure salaries and pensions. They eventually ran out of taxpayer money. Same thing is still happening in Greece, too.

    Towns and counties and all levels of government should be run as businesses. Specific types of jobs usually demand a specified salary depending on the level of training and responsibility. Once the employee reaches a specified level, if the employee wants a higher salary they need to look for another job that requires their experience and training. It's not up to our elected officials to keep raising salaries at taxpayer expense because John Doe is a great guy. Maybe John needs to move on and the government needs to hire an entry level employee that has the skills required of the job and save a few bucks for the taxpayers.

    Our elected officials like to keep expanding services and creating unnecessary jobs. They like to build a bigger bureaucratic monument to themselves in the name of providing better government for the taxpayer. Maybe they want to increase health services because they say it's a nice thing to do. But maybe it's already working OK. Perhaps they want to create a new position like public information officer but never ask what a small county government with few "breaking stories" needs with a public information officer. Oh, they're just spending someone else's money.

    Milton Friedman, (1912-2006) noted economist and Nobel Prize winner, said there are four ways to spend money. First, spend your money on yourself; second, spend your money on somebody else; third, spend somebody else's money on yourself, and fourth, spend somebody else's money on somebody else. In the first two cases when you spend your own money, most people are pretty careful in how they spend their money. In the third case, you might not be so careful in spending someone else's money on yourself. Say you are on an expense account that your boss reimburses you for meals, etc. So you go out for lunch and instead of getting a sandwich you might treat yourself to fillet mignon. After all, the boss is buying. But when you (say a government official) spends someone else's money (the taxpayers) on someone else (say hiring their Aunt Sarah as public information officer) the government official doesn't give it a second thought. After all, it not his money and it helps out Aunt Sarah.

    Now most people don't pay much attention to when their tax rate goes up a cent or two. They also don't pay much attention to when their local government gives raises to their employees in the last five out of six years when the economy has been in the dumper. But that is exactly why Stockton had to file for bankruptcy and why California's budget is in such a mess and why the federal deficit is over $16.8 trillion. Because no one was paying attention and both parties just kept on spending.

    Throughout NC Counties, governments of towns, schools and the county are holding public meetings determining how they will spend your tax dollars and whether they will have to raise taxes. Carteret County government cut 1¢ from the property taxes last year but now seems to be on track for a tax increase this year. So what has changed so drastically in Carteret County government in the last year to cause this need to spend more money? Is it up to the county and school system to raise our taxes because there is now some new unfunded federal mandate? Maybe you need to take a closer look at what is going on with the county and schools in your county to warrant increased spending or watch your wallet get lighter. If you don't ask questions, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.