What's a Priority?

When your paycheck comes in every week or month, the first thought that usually crosses our mind is a preliminary list of the places to which we owe money. Places like the grocery store, clothing bills, utilities, gas for the car and others.

We probably also consider the desire to buy things that are not absolutely necessary to our lives, but would make them more pleasant or more fun.

Since we do this regularly, we just accept it as the way things are. And, we juggle money so that it mostly matchehes what we spend or, sometimes, we do without a fun thing so we can pay a must thing.

It's a shame government and the politicians who run it don't go about spending our money in this way. Almost every politician I ask about priorities talks about the "new" things he wants to spend money on and often talks about "economic development" and building monuments. Sometimes they talk about "new iniatives in education" and how we must extend schooling do four-year old chilren and provie daycare and healthcare and other things to needy children. We've all heard these statements or read them in campaign literature.

So, let's step back and consider the politicians job. First, we allow, by majority vote, politicians to take our money for government purposes, at the point of a gun if need be. We cannot object. Our only choice is to vote he or she and their friends out at the next election. In the meantime, we must pay, even if our family goes without.

Second, we allow him or her to spend that money, again by majority vote, pretty much any way they please. It's a sobering thought.

And while there is much discussion of budget making and setting priorities, often it is a sham. The NC Legislature demonstrated this by passing a budget for which they had to steal money from all over the organization. Almost a billion dollars all told. And then they stayed in town for another two weeks to appropriate - read that spend - money on all manner of pork-barrel projects to please special interests in their home counties. Government's priorities are way out of whack.

What should the priorities of government be? Thomas Jefferson offered the opinion that government should only do things for all the citizens that they could not do for themselves. And another founding father offered that government should protect the life and property of the citizens. Nothing was mentioned about sports arenas and civic centers.

In today's terms, what are these priorities?

1. Public safety and protection of property - This includes military, police and fire protection, courts, human services and relations with other countries. This is the first and biggest chunk of the money.
2. Education - The founding fathers recognized that we had not only the obligation to teach childrento be good citizens and make them capable of earning a living, we also had to create people who could lead our country in the future. We haven't done a very good job of this recent years, although the Wake County Schools have made some progress. But, they have a long way to go. Worse, we have heaped many things on education, such as healthcare, nutrition and food service, busing, mental health, care for the handicapped - the list goes on. Unfortunately, while highly motivated these things distract the teachers and the system from the goal of education. With the result of a generation of young people who seem to lack a lot of the skills of living and working.
3. Roads and Bridges - The third priority is sort of obvious. Only governmetn has the resources needed to build good roads to join together our communities and allow commerce. Without good roads, we would all have to have a plot of vegetbles out back, and maybe a couple of pigs and a cow and some chickens to feed our families. With roads, farmers can grow all the things we need and deliver them to our supermarket. This gives us time to think and invent and build and create the marvelous society which America has become.

Didn't I leave out some things? Not really. Most everything else is NOT a needed government service. Think about what isn't there. There are lots of things.

For example, construction of entertainment areanas and stadiums. Where do they fit in the three priorities above? How is the lack of them life threatening? Who will go hungry or die or lose their home if they are not built? No one. The only ones who benefit are a small group of people who make money from the people who come from out of town. People who must stay overnight and eat out. This is not all the people, these are "special interests"

"But, " the special interests say, "this brings millions of dollars to our community and we all benefit from those dollars running areound buying things." This is the economic development argument.

I don't notice the sports promoters writing check to the retired, or the poor, or anybody else. The only checks that are written go into their pockets.

The same thing is true of the entertainment arenas, like Walnut Creek.

Special interests have become a part of government, seeking wealth and power for themselves, by using our money to buy the things that will profit them most. Special Interests should at least have the honesty to admit that most of what they do in the name of bringing economic development to our communities would probably not be done if they had to pay for it themselves.

If it's not profitable, why should government pay for it?

So what do we do?

Well, that's the hard part. It's what we've got to do, as taxpayers and voters. Only we can do it. We have to ask our political candidates what they are planning to do with our money? And, if we don't like the answers, vote against them.

Unfortunately, we don't do that and they know it. That is why our taxes creep ever upward.