Page 4 RAIN January 1979 DEMOCRACY-IS Somewhere in the dim, dark reaches of the last half century we loosened a crucial grip on control of our lives-the right to determine how much and for what tax money would be extracted from our pockets and emptied into bottomless government coffers. Federal problems seemed so far away, our elected officials seemed trustworthy, and inevitably more knowledge- , able about what was needed to deal with large problems than we are. And we shared a dream that a government that could win a world war and develop an atomic bomb could legislate or regulate or delegate away the intractable problems we couldn't bother to get honest enough to resolve. The right to le'{y income and other taxes without local approval was a vast transfer of power from individuals to government, as we are now learning. The continued funding of government agencies today rests on their plea~ing Congress, not taxpayers. Congress has the power to attempt to resolve (or meddle with) any problems- to do most anything it wants - at the federal level ·without asking if we wish it done or feel that to be the best way to do it. •• It's not just federal agencies that are affected. Federal funding for state and local projects, such as freeways, sewage plants, hospitals and schools is set up purposefully to be hard to re- .fuse and to influence use of local funds. If you don't approve a dam or freeway or urban renewal project for which government funding is available, do you get a tax reduction or refund instead? Ha! Your money goes to someone who is willing to spend it! As a result, control of our state and local governments, academic, medical and transportation programs has largely followed the power of our federal tax d9llar. Our city and state governments have chafed under federal regulations, but inevitably have found fe'deral dollars safer and easier to go after than going directly to local taxpayers for funds. They also quickly found that such funding sources freed them to pursue their own institutional vision of Utopia without interference from the different dreams of their constituents. It's not only appalling to discover how far our local governments have put us as individuals and as communities into debt for ill conceived sports palaces, convention centers, utility, urban renewal and other projects-it's also appalling to learn how little say we have in preventing projects and expenditures . we don't want. Over one third of the bu_dget of many cities now goes merely to pay finance charges •on such projects. The bankers profit handsomely. We pay equally handsomely. The question remains one of control. • Old party p;litics seem to have shifted around in response to this problem and the trends that have developed because of it. The old conservative stood for personal rights and privileges (particularly those of the more privileged) while the liberal stood for social equity through governmental action. The souring of that sweet dream has brought forth new coalitions straight from Gulliver's Tra_vels, the Litt,le Enders-people who seek social equity through individual responsibility and community effort aligned with those who seek personal gain through the same means against the Big Enders, who believe in getting at action from the big end of the egg-those who look yet to big government for personal or social salvation. -ATWO· by Tom Bender
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz