Maggie Thurber on The Toledo Budget

Maggie Thurber has written an excellent commentary on the Toledo budget, something that the Toledo City Council has consistently failed to deal with.  One paragraph in particular should be etched in stone, and be required reading for all registered voters every single day of the year.  Here it is, courtesy of Maggie Thurber:

Just remember this: Whenever government raises taxes, fees, or increases its income (in whatever form), the politicians are telling you that they need your money more than you do. They are telling you that their special projects and priorities are more important that yours - including your mortgage or rent, your utilities, your food, your retirement, your children's college funds, your home improvements - everything!

And as a result of their actions, you will go with less while they brag about 'saving' city services.

Think about this every single time you look at your paycheck stub and see the amount of money that Toledo is helping itself to before you even get a chance to hold that cash in your hand.  Use a little multiplication and see what that amounts to at the end of the year.  Now think about property tax, the cost of electricity and natural gas, what it costs to visit the doctor, the dentist, the optometrist... the bills are endless, money's tight and the Toledo City Council does not give a tinker's damn.

The city can do with less, but the council doesn't want to.  They want to brag about all the expensive social programs they've provided that very likely don't affect you, the taxpayer.  Those programs are over priced and council knows it, and the Toledo City Council does not give a tinker's damn about that either.

Mike Bell has some work ahead of him, but he could come out of this looking like a hero.  All he has to do is start forcing the city to live within its means and cut the city's income to a reasonable level.

We could apply the same rule to State spending, and applying it with the thought that the State of Florida gets along quite nicely without a State income tax, thank you.  Then there's Federal spending, which is so far out of control that the Federal government might actually go bankrupt in the next four years unless spending is cut, and cut in a major fashion.