Another Letter Critical of Private Sector by Brian
Published by Tampa Tribune’s Hernando Today edition on Friday, April 10, 2009
Editor’s Note: Moore is a democratic socialist politician from Spring Hill. He was the Socialist Party USA and Liberty Union Party candidate for president in 2008.
Entitled: “Do Your Homework”
Michael Bate’s article of April 8, 2009, “Committee Mulls Budget Cuts,” highlights the misguided priorities of the Hernando County Budget and Finance Committee members.
All three of the committee’s targets directly affect citizen services, by the committee’s proposed elimination of the community relations department, reducing hours of government services and consolidating departments.
Committee Chair Rose Rocco said she is “confident people will understand the need for deep cuts,” especially in light of the county’s $10 million deficit next year.
Ms. Rocco claims “We don’t have a choice!” Plus, Committee member Lisa Covell said she would like to see county government “follow the lead of private business and freeze employee salaries.”
Further cost reductions recommended by the committee include consolidating county offices, eliminating roads and getting rid of “The Bus.”
The entire emphasis of who should bear the burden of absorbing the sacrifices, of at least these two committee members, is to reduce services for our citizens. There is no mention by Chairperson Rocco that maybe they should conduct an audit, preferably by an independent outside auditor, of the previous year’s budget, to find out how it expended its monies, and the outcomes of such expenditures, to determine what was beneficial and what was not helpful to the community. An audit should also determine the effectiveness of the use of both internal and external parties in delivering services. Maybe the county’s use of outside consultants, contractors and sub-contractors are not cost efficient, nor achieving the county’s goals of delivering necessary services to its citizenry.
But no, the first thing Ms. Rocco and Ms. Covell jump on is to reduce the services that benefit citizens the most. Ms. Covell further adds insult to injury by stating that county government needs to “follow the lead of private business and freeze employee salaries.” Here again, if they aren’t asking the citizenry to bear the burden, then they put the responsibility upon the county employee!! What about the private contractors Ms. Covell? What about the private sector consultants, Ms. Covell? What about the private businesses who charge the government exorbitant rates, fees, or cheat the government out of its hard earned tax dollars?
We have just witnessed the private sector nationally rip off the nation, its citizenry and government in the finance industry, the banking industry, the lending industry, the hedge funds, the Wall Street finance companies, the law firms, and on and on and on. It was the private sector that was de-regulated and given tax write offs, subsidies, corporate welfare, loopholes,. and tax breaks to operate in our county as well.
No, Ms. Rocco, we do have a choice! We can conduct analyses, do our due diligence, and conduct independent audits to find out how we expended monies in the past, before we determine how to spend less monies in the future. For all we know, we may need to eliminate the entire corrupt, dishonest, panhandling, for-profit sector because we may learn that it is that sector that has caused us such a horrible deficit condition.
So quit going after the little guy, the vulnerable taxpayers and government employees, who have no voices, no lobbyists, and no politicians who really represent them, especially because there is no union to represent their needs nor to stand up for their interests. It is usually the private sector that gives the big contributions to the politicians and then the politicians are beholding to them.
After reading Mr. Bates article, and the explanations given by our political leaders, is it no wonder we are in the mess we are in.
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