What if we can't afford to pay the piper?

One quote by Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper stood out in Wednesday’s story by the Enquirer’s Jessica Brown (“For Hamilton County, time to pay the piper”) about the tough financial choices the county faces. Pepper’s words bear repeating – and considering:

“I think over the decades when there was more money, the county took on services and activities that aren't required and at the time didn't cost much. But they cost more now and don't benefit all the taxpayers. It's the trend of taking on things and instead of asking the users to pay for it, having the taxpayers as a whole pay for it through the general fund.”

Pepper’s saying a whole spicy mouthful here – and it doesn’t just apply to Hamilton County. It pertains to all levels of government, whichever party is in control. The city of Cincinnati has long wrestled with budget priorities and what programs are appropriate for it to undertake. In the 1990s the state of Ohio, like other states flush with cash, created program after program to spend that cash (at three times the rate of inflation) and is still regretting – and paying for – those decisions.

And the federal government – well, its budget transgressions now register in the trillions. Congress’ wild spending orgy during the past several years under GOP control hasn’t abated now that the Democrats have taken over this year. The just-passed omnibus bill is cut from the same cloth as previous ones, stuffed with billions in often-nonsensical earmarks (and this after a supposed “reform” of the process). More ominously, the recent creation of entitlements such as the Medicare prescription benefit holds implications for decades to come: How do our children and grandchildren manage a now-projected $45 trillion entitlement shortfall?

We know why governments do this, of course – to please various interest groups, voting blocs, constituents. It’s a downside of our electoral system. But more than that, it comes from the tendency of that parasitic organism known as government bureaucracy to find more reasons for its existence and continuous growth.

As Pepper and his colleagues acknowledge, Hamilton County spent money it didn’t have on assumption that tax revenues would keep rolling in. But the real world doesn’t work like that. Most families know that – or should. Pepper noted the county’s “bad habit” of creating new programs during good times without considering how it would pay for them in bad times. That’s a stellar argument for keeping taxes low in general, and for cutting them wherever and whenever possible, especially when times are good. Besides keeping money in the private sector, which is far more capable of producing economic growth, jobs and innovation than government, it forces public officials to constantly evaluate where they allocate tax dollars.

They shouldn’t just make tough choices during hard times. They ought to be making tough choices during good times, too. That’s the real point.

Here’s what officials on all levels of government should be asking – and voters and taxpayers should be demanding: Does this program make sense for government to do? Is there another entity that can do it more efficiently? Should the actual users be paying for it instead of taxpayers at large? Should it be done in the public sector at all? More fundamentally, what is government’s real purpose? Are we straying from it?

Of course, if you follow what Dennis Hetzel is saying in his posting below, you know we’ve long since strayed far, far away from that purpose. There’s no sense of reality regarding what we can and can’t afford. We’ll all be paying the piper – not just Hamilton County.