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County
Government: Much Bigger is Better!
Published Saturday,
June 8, 1996
Listen to the austerity
junkies! Reduce the size of government!
Down with the Government Monster! Away with the
Evil Civil Servants! I was kidnapped by Unidentified
Flying Bureaucrats from outer space! Government has now replaced
the former Soviet Union as the Evil Empire.
Reduce the size of government? Nonsense! Not if were
talking about Nevada County government. We need more government
-- lots more. And we need it now.
County government touches us more directly and more often than the State
or Fed. Its the entity that manages law enforcement, sanitation,
public health, public records, restaurant inspections, elections, building
inspections, courts, animal control, the county fair, and lots more.
Its also the biggest bargain in our personal budgets, and weve
been getting off cheap for years.
Bargain, you say? Cheap, you say? Yes. Ignore sales
and gas taxes for a moment. The property tax on your home assessed
at $150,000 should be about $1875 a year. Thats the equivalent
of one greasy pizza, one bad hamburger dinner, and one video rental per
week. For that paltry amount, you get cops and a chance to vote,
to say nothing of dozens of other services. Sounds like a bargain
to me, and Id be happy to pay twice as much.
Its amazing that the county has been delivering steak at hamburger
prices for years. I would imagine department heads are a little
stressed, as they are understaffed, underpaid, and underappreciated.
And somehow, were still well served by our 947 underpaid county
employees, who are, incidentally, our friends, neighbors, and spouses.
Well, austere wasnt good enough for us, so we passed Measure F.
Measure F is proof that you can lose weight by cutting off your leg.
Statistically sound, but its harder to dance. Well, I welcome
its passage, because this will show us how impoverished government, based
on impoverished thinking, works. Then later, we can get back to
fattening government up.
Fat government? Yes! Ask any businessperson if people demand
and pay for outstanding customer service. Of course they do!
We demand an impeccably high level of service, with bright, motivated
employees, short lines, and abundant choices. Americans do not like
austerity. We love pampering, and well get that when we fatten
things up by providing better pay for county workers, more of them, and
the new tools they need.
Here are some great places to spend:
The Sheriffs Department obviously needs more sworn officers,
more modern equipment, more cars, and a competitive wage for its dedicated
employees. Many Sheriffs deputies are at the top of their
not-too-great pay scales. This department needs a bigger budget,
not a smaller one.
Elections and the Recorders Office. The State, and
not our whim, dictates much of this departments activity.
The County Clerk cannot say, Oh, la. I dont think we
can afford a general election this year. Each cut in this
department slows things down and diminishes your level of service.
The Library. Books, not Nintendo games, are the font of knowledge.
Reverse that proposed $300,000 cut now. Buy some computers, like
they have in civilized countries. Kids, retired moms, and all kinds
of taxpayers will able to log on to the world by going to the library
instead of an internet cafe. Heck, they may even want to send e-mail
to the two county supervisors who know what it is.
Data Processing is the one department that can help all the other
departments run better. Automation is a tremendous tool for getting
us better service in the future. And in that future, the county
computers can give us instant access to all public information, handle
our communications with government, pay us our refunds, and collect our
tax payments (grrr) electronically. Id say our DP department
needs more people, more money and more tools. Thats smart
business.
Now some of you might say, You cant fix a problem by throwing
money at it! Wrongo. We fix most problems in modern
life, like dental work and broken cars, by doing exactly that. Works
great. And you dont improve a service organization, like county
government, by withholding money.
The government we want is the government that fully meets our needs.
And our needs are as elaborate as want them to be. To fill them,
we need only to get mature and be willing to pay the bills.
Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and a nine-year resident of
Nevada County. You can write to him at barry@wvswrite.com. The opinions
of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union.
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