Under Water

I want to share with you some thoughts for improving state government.  But first, somewhat inexplicably I must admit, I would like to point out a bit of massive stupidity in my own life.

Before I do that let me say that I have been meeting with a small group of folks and we are looking at ways of making government work better.  In our case we are looking at Missouri, but our discussions are fairly general and so could apply to any state.

One cannot look at improving government without immediately realizing how much redundancy and unneeded complexity and downright stupidity there is.  Whether you are on the left or right philosophically we can all readily admit there is a lot of improvement that could be made in the way government does its business.  Efficiency seems to be in short supply, while bureaucracy is plentiful.

I am not saying that there are not good and efficient people working in government, but those people are for the most part swimming upstream. 

Today our group met with a gentleman named Dan who is the founder of the Spending Oversight Council.  Dan’s group tries to figure out where the money is being spent in our state government.  This is not an easy task.  It seems even the bureaucrats are often unable to track how much is being spent, and on what.  Nevertheless, he shared a number of anecdotes regarding specific pieces of legislation from the last session that required that specific things be done in opposite ways in separate pieces of legislation.

Do you know the size of your state budget?  How much does the State of Missouri collect and spend in a given year?  While you ponder that question (or run to Google) I will tell you my own story of incompetence.

Like most people my wife and I struggle to keep our expenses as low as possible.  Our Homeowner’s Insurance doubled last year after our roof was replaced following a hailstorm.  We are just getting around to shopping for a cheaper policy and we found a policy that should be able to drop it back in half.  Our electric bill always rises dramatically in winter and so we are looking at options to better insulate and save some money on heating.  And then there is the water bill.

A few years ago the water company came through and put new meters in everyone’s front yards so they could read them automatically without coming inside to read the meter.  Our water bill jumped a bit but we had other things going on and I did not pay enough attention.  We had more people at home and we were watering a lot and then other things happened and well, I ended up setting all my bills up on autopay and it just kept getting paid.

Lately we started looking at everything more closely and our water bill was 3 or 4 times what everyone else was paying.  We have less people living here and haven’t been watering and the bill really made no sense the more we looked at it.  It did not vary much from month to month, whether we watered the lawn or people moved out or, well anything.

I called the water company.  They had a note that they had planned to put in the new meter in 2012 but it was never done.  They have not been metering our water usage in any way for at least two years.  The bills have been computer generated and they vary only slightly as the computer algorithm figured we probably used a little more or a little less based on reasoning that only exists inside their computer, because there were no readings, no actual data.  Just really high bills.

I feel like an idiot.  They are coming out on Friday to change the old meter in the basement with one that can send them an actual signal.  They will see how much water we ACTUALLY use for a few months and then issue a credit for what they have been charging us.

Make no mistake, your government bureaucracy is to a large extent also on autopilot.  We elect legislators to go oversee the bureaucrats but they have to try and understand many hundreds of bills every session, many of which are very complex and refer to other legislation.  Nobody can be an expert on every subject or piece of legislation and so they rely on aides and lobbyists and the very bureaucrats running the process to assure us the legislation makes sense.

Missouri’s budget is (give or take a little) about $24 Billion per year.  A significant portion of that is for social services and mental health and health care.  Education and transportation account for most of the rest.  A big chunk of the revenue comes from the federal government (about a third) and then income and sales and property taxes account for a third or so, with various fees and licenses and the lottery making up the final third. 

We will be looking much more closely at this budget and how it is structured but it will be difficult to get very detailed numbers because of the complexity and duplication and, frankly, the obfuscation involved.  There is a lot that people do not really want the public to fully understand.

I don’t have a lot of answers yet but there are a few basic principles I would like to share with you.

·         We need to simplify and streamline government.  There is a lot of duplication and waste and redundancy that needs to be eliminated.  Lots of needless complexity needs to go away.

·         We must continue to take care of basic things like education and transportation and welfare programs for the needy.  However, we need a different approach so that, for example, we combine social services into a single department instead of dozens of programs that do not interact with each other.

·         We must reform our tax code.  We are not all going to agree on the proper mix of income, sales, and property taxes but we can agree to get rid of all of the loopholes and deductions, exemptions, subsidies, and incentives that all play to various special interests wanting a piece of the pie.  Your taxes should be straightforward and simple and not used for social engineering.

·         Benefits should be means tested.  If you are truly in need, then you should show proof of that and be eligible for government services.  If you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or George Soros then you do not need to be receiving services, whether you paid in or not.  

·         Social Security needs to be reformed to be a defined-contribution program, like a “forced 401k”.  We cannot afford to keep promising benefits to people that we all know we cannot afford.

·         The federal government needs to leave to the states all of those things not specifically enumerated in the constitution, per the 10^thamendment.  Federal “strings” on money going to states include bizarre rules and improper mandates that are inappropriate and not helpful.  The federal government should concentrate on those things states cannot do and focus on foreign policy and securing our borders and other things it has been neglecting.

As our little group works through these things to develop a vision for where we need to go and how to get there I will keep you posted and ask you to give me your opinions and ideas on issues. 

For now, let me ask you to consider the following.

·         Are you registered to vote?

·         Will you be voting in next month’s election?

·         Do you know who will be on the ballot?

·         Do you know what amendments are on the ballot and how you will be voting on them?

·         Who is the Speaker of the House in your state?  What party controls the House and Senate where you live?

·         Can you name your US Congressman and two US Senators? Who is your state representative and state senator?  Will they be on the ballot?  County Executive?  Will there be local candidates and ballot issues?

Please get informed if you cannot answer these questions.  Money is being wasted as we speak and the system is on autopilot.  It will not change unless we get up and ask the right questions and change it.