POLITICS - It’s a common experience for just about every kid growing up with a brother or male friend to be held down, have one’s hand and/or wrist grabbed by that brother or friend, and then be forced to be hit in the face with one’s own hand as that brother or friend repeatedly yells, “Stop hitting yourself!” It’s a cute (but perhaps a little funny) childhood memory, right? However, it’s not so cute (or funny) when it’s happening to adult taxpayers in this state—and, in particular, in the City of the Angels.
Simply put, the trust placed by taxpayers into their elected leaders’ hands to spend their hard-earned money is as close to sacred as anything our society can produce. However, it is well-known that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…which is why the more our local, state and federal governments exerts greater control, the greater the risk they will conclude that OUR money is really THEIR money.
This sad state of human affairs is true whether a Republican or Democrat is in power, and is true whether a conservative or liberal is in power—it’s too easy to presume that your side is in the “moral majority” and that God is on your side, and that everyone would agree with you if they really thought things through. Hence we have term limits for most of our electeds, which is one of the greatest defenses our society can ever create against excessive Statism and Tyranny.
Of course, if more people voted and were independent of their political party orthodoxy, then we’d have another form of term limits altogether—throwing the bums out—but too many of us are addicted to reality TV and computer games, and are not paying attention to the sordid, boring and cynical (but yet essential) issues of politics. Furthermore, it’s particularly vexing to get out the vote when we discover that our own taxes are over-empowering groups that aren’t even elected.
The recent Times headline article about the overwhelming power of the California Teachers Association (CTA) probably came as a shock to few, and hopefully came as to most as a mere confirmation of what most of us already knew: an unelected lobby had excessive influence over state politicians’ political fortunes and the taxpayers’ money…leaving the taxpayers without representation.
Certainly, there are other inappropriate lobbies that have hurt California—Enron, various defense contractors and Wall Street entities have similarly raided California taxpayers’ money through taxpayer expenditures and tax loopholes while their elected representatives looked the other way or even empowered them. Now, however, the CTA is the greatest current threat from Sacramento to taxpayer wallets and rights that voters must confront.
Also certain is our need to have a trained and responsive civil service, and government intervention to provide basic services needed for modern civilization as well as to protect the otherwise-unprotected. Anyone with an appreciation of our National Park Service, our libraries and parks, and the plight of the disabled gets that.
Another certainty is our need to raise taxes…so long as they’re spent transparently and designated appropriately. We’ve passed Measure L to ensure funding City of LA libraries, and passed Measure R (and will hopefully pass Measure J) to ensure countywide/Metro transportation projects and services that are up to 50 years overdue.
Similarly, with the excellent advent of new city parks in park-poor Los Angeles, it’s not hard to conclude we’ll need a new City of LA measure to ensure funding to maintain and enhance our park system for families to enjoy. All families who choose to live in Los Angeles—particularly those with children, and regardless of socioeconomic status—should have access to local parks, bicycle networks and pedestrian-friendly locations to affordably access and enjoy a first-rate quality of life.
Yet taxation without representation is something this nation has been opposed to since its very founding, and a lethal combination of poor history-teaching, apathy and generations of poor government leadership and spending habits has made too many of us too used to taxes that have benefited a few and hurt the rest of us—particularly as we’re being asked to spend more taxes with diminishing return.
It’s well-known and well-discussed of how our well-meant federal stimulus package of 2009 was well-wasted, with too little money being spent on necessary infrastructure and too much on well-connected lobbies and special interests. Meanwhile, Sacramento’s numerous schemes and misspending of money has not helped but hurt our economy, and has only helped the CTA and so many other public servants who too-often forget whether they serve the taxpayer or the other way around.
And as public sector unions (who misrepresent their own workers, particularly their newer and younger workers) and elected officials scold the taxpayers (particularly the “rich”, whatever they are defined as) for not paying enough and demanding something for nothing, the question of whether more taxes would go for paying for necessary services in a lousy economy—versus more unsustainable public sector perks—begs the question: why do we keep hitting ourselves?
The CTA union dues, developer/lobbyist sweetheart deals, utility money grabs and tax loopholes (whether they be corporate, private or public sector) are all paid for in one way or another by the taxpayer. So as the taxpayer continues to suffer financially, and gets rewarded with a lower quality of life for their increasingly-high and decreasingly-transparent taxes, when do we stop hitting ourselves?
On a final—and particularly important—note is the decision by County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to not enter the LA mayoral race. Supervisor Yaroslavsky was a renowned social liberal but fiscal conservative. For example, he both stopped Metro subway spending when it was out of control in the 1990’s, and restarted it when Metro planning and spending was more defined, logical and transparent.
Los Angeles has a desire to tackle social issues, but also an existential need, to restore its fiscal foundation and policies to avoid the fate of San Jose and San Bernardino (two major California cities who spent poorly and who now rely on Chapter 9 bankruptcy to untie the self-imposed fiscal knots in which they’re now entrapped). As the Times article pointed out, with Yaroslavsky gone the major contenders for mayor, as well as a major contender for city controller, are all City Council insiders.
The same insiders—Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry and Dennis Zine—who presided over this city’s fiscal decline and who show little inclination to limit-set with the insider forces that have brought this city to its knees. In particular, Wendy Greuel has shown too much subservience to the SEIU and the IBEW, and although Dennis Zine knows a thing or two about safety/security he’s as dumb as rock with respect to our city’s finances.
The city’s public sector unions, such as the SEIU and the IBEW, have as much or more power over city finances than the taxpayers who are responsible for this city’s budget. Outsiders such as mayoral candidate Kevin James, and controller candidate Cary Brazeman, are as knowledgeable about city finances and policies as the insiders (arguably more so, based on their public statements to date), yet the taxpayers still do not know enough about them.
So when do we, the taxpayers, shake ourselves free of the iron-clad grip of our long-standing elected insiders and their non-elected allies, and stop hitting ourselves?
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee, chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and is co-chair of the non-profit Friends of the Green Line (www.fogl.us). He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 69
Pub: Aug 28, 2012
