re: #120 DaddyG

There is a kind of weird throwing money at problems at the federal level while states are getting pinched providing more services with less resources. Sooner or later the combination of federal debt and unfunded state mandates are going to show some real cracks in our infrastructure. I’m a fan of more local control over many government functions but the wholesale slashing of government budgets for the sake of political pandering is scary.

I think there already IS local control over local governments. The strings come when they take federal money: then they have to comply with the rules that come with the money.

That said, I think I agree with you more than I disagree with you. The whole “pay taxes to the US Govt so it can send some of that money back to your state or local government so you can pay less local taxes” seems pretty messy and inefficient to me. And it masks the true costs of your state and local government.

Better to make the local government really accountable, and to not flinch if local voters don’t want to pay for services. If they insist on shitty roads and crappy schools, so be it.