Island Guardian

Locally Owned & Operated
- islandguardian.com -
(360) 378-8243 - 305 Blair Avenue, Friday Harbor, WA 98250
The Island Guardian is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists

Bikini

Looking at the county budget is like staring at a really fat girl in a bikini, you can’t help but look and then you wish you hadn’t. I’m glad the looking is over. The big fat flabby budget is passed.

This whopping 53 million-dollar budget really packs a lot into such a petite sized county. We ended up with 10 new full-time employees bringing our total to 250 (The largest employer in the county is now the County). We gained a housing coordinator and several paid facilitators for committees whose recommendations are generally ignored. They gave a generous subsidy to the Orcas farmers market, and everybody got lots of brand new equipment. Like Santa Claus the Council opened up the big bag and gave gifts to just about everyone.

They did not budget any money to fix the “weeping wall” inside the Courthouse. That’s right. The existing courthouse leaks like the Titanic and they keep saying that they don’t have enough money to fix it. The procrastination has become legendary.

If we keep growing the government at this pace we will need a new wing on the courthouse. Next we will be told that a desperately needed addition will solve the leak problem. For just a few million we can tear down the “weeping wall” and build a new Courthouse wing! The leak will be fixed and there will be room for all the new hires. But first we need to do an expensive study. How’s that for efficiency.

We were told that we need all of this additional spending because San Juan County is the fastest growing county in the state. This is bunk! * We actually have the fastest growing government per capita but we are not growing fast at all compared to other counties (Unless you call adding 200 retirees a year fast).

Some councilmen spoke out with concern about the shocking increase in spending for 2008 but that did not stop them from voting to approve it. What they say and what they do are altogether different. It’s like they say they are on a diet but refuse to lose weight. Does my budget look too fat in this skimpy outfit? Damn right it does!

I will make a bold prediction and a couple of promises for 2008. Our County will spend all of this budget and more. I promise not to write any more columns about the budget this year. I promise not to poke fun at plump girls in bikinis ever again. It doesn’t make your butt look big, honest!

* http://www.ofm.wa.gov/pop/april1/cocmpch2007.pdf

[link]

Acupuncture

Politicians are like acupuncturists. They stick you with tax after tax. It doesn’t hurt too much to begin with but if they keep on sticking you it can be fatal. This is called death by a thousand pricks.

We are often under the false impression that we elect people to be advocates for us, leaders who will represent us and look out for our best interests. What we often get is someone who will stick it to us as soon as our back is turned.

I have observed this kind of mindset recently. During one of the budget workshops a Council member stated, “We need to be careful what we do here because people are watching us.” This kind of comment could lead us to believe that if no one is watching they will stick us so full of taxes we’ll look like pincushions.

Here’s an urgent news flash. Most people get really bored at meetings. They are so dull some Councilmen take a nap during afternoon sessions." Many simply can’t attend every meeting where new taxes and fees are proposed. There are just too many. That’s why we elect people to represent us. Since when does not showing up mean, “We want more taxes”? We can’t expect our representatives to look out for our interests because they seem to assume that being taxed to death is what we want.

The budget for next year is a good example of this. The actual money the Council proposes to spend is up over $12 million dollars from last year! I remember when the entire budget was about the size of this increase. It is still not enough. They are debating over additional spending as people stand in line asking for more.

Our system has become twisted. In the past people didn’t ask government to do everything for them. Government relied on the people for its strength. Independence and self-sufficiency were virtues most people shared. Today people share an entitlement mentality where government has been re-defined.

This new relationship between people and government is like a depression era soup kitchen and this puts politicians in an impossible situation. Those who want more “stuff” from government disguise themselves as starving people. Then they line up for their free soup and the politicians dish out heaping helpings. To do otherwise would make them seem mean and nasty. All politicians want to seem compassionate-not nasty. But someone has to pay the bill so taxpayers get stuck again and again.

This is why politicians are like acupuncturists. They know what’s best for us and the prescription is needles that keep pricking us. “This will pinch just a bit at first”, they say. And it does hurt because there are way too many needles. We should demand that they stop this treatment because when we get the bill we find that they really are sticking it to us.

[link]