The Cost of Government

DeKalb County Georgia may request a change from having an elected County CEO to having a hired County Manager to supervise county operations.  They would need to hire one who is dedicated to critical infrastructure as the main priority.  They don’t need one who is dedicated to corporate welfare and economic development.  This may be impossible, so we the voters of DeKalb should decide to elect a CEO who will make county infrastructure the number one priority.

The cost of government needs to be addressed.  Our large metro areas have $1 billion budgets in their county governments and school boards.  The cities in these metro counties can have budgets that range from $25 million to $1 billion depending on size.  There are also other taxpayer funded entities in these large metro areas like public transit, special taxing districts, community improvement districts and tax subsidies for county hospitals.  These entities employ thousands of employees who have unsustainable pension plans and staggering giveaway programs for corporate welfare and taxpayer subsidies for the poor.  The poor are drawn to large metro areas to get healthcare and other taxpayer subsidies.  There is ample evidence to make us consider shrinking these troubled large metro areas to put jobs into rural counties. 

Local politics determines who gets elected to office as county commissioners, city councilors and school board reps and their constituents often want things that increase costs and don’t relate to the highest priority responsibilities of these governmental entities.  These elected officials find themselves as players in a rigged game.  In counties, cities and school boards, they are wheeled in and out by staff to approve spending proposed by the staff and the hired county and city managers and school superintendents.   The agenda is set by staff and the elected officials don’t focus on the real priorities. The other problem for large metro areas is the notion that government is a jobs program and candidates are elected to help constituents and their relatives find jobs.  This results in massive government waste.  Local developers and land speculators will encourage the formation of city governments to get more control over zoning.  They first disparage county government honesty and competence and sell poorly informed voters that they need their own Police force and zoning control.  This results in an unnecessary layer of government and things get worse.

The real priorities should be clear.  The most expensive critical infrastructure in these counties and cities is the priority.  This includes water reservoirs sufficient to survive droughts, clean water distribution, fail-safe sanitary sewer pipes, water treatment plants, well designed functional highways and well maintained roads and bridges.  This infrastructure costs $Billions to build and maintain.

Those managers who have responsibility for these systems need to be extremely competent, honest engineering managers with a background in managing contractors and successfully maintaining similar systems.  They should also have the authority to select these contractors and make “make or buy” decisions to use staff.  The Purchasing Department should be in charge of getting the lowest quotes and performance bonds and documenting these quotes and vendor quality reports for management review. The Public Works manager should approve the contracts.

Rural counties have typically selected their own elected officials, but here the voters actually know these candidates.  Here, cities are formed by local concentrations of retail businesses who want to control zoning for their own developers and land speculators.  They also want their own city police to protect their businesses.  They sell this by convincing the voters that they need city police too.  Rural counties can be taken over by crooks and fools, but more of these function honestly and competently than not.  Many of these counties still look to their own big farmers, grain companies and farm related businesses to supply managers to run for office.  They collar each other to run when they need candidates.  They are wary of big city outsiders, especially if they have become exurbs and development has begun.  They know that it’s easier to prevent roach infestation than it is to eradicate them.

Voters need to know the extent to which the government employee fiefdom has been expanded.  The Georgia Municipal Association is in league with the Regional Commissions, crony businesses, consulting firms, law firms, large corporations, the Chamber of Communists and the State Legislature to remove voter control and replace it with staff control and UN.  This allows the fox to guard the hen house.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader