We are being told that we need to increase the local sales tax in order to fund urgently needed upgrades to our 911 system.
I don’t doubt that we need to make the necessary upgrades and improvements. But I would like to ask a different question. What is the business of government?
My foggy recollection of civics class is that government is there to provide those services to the community that are necessary and cannot be economically provided by a lower form of government.
There are certain things that the city must provide to its citizens for their safety. Police, fire and emergency medical spring to mind. I doubt that my neighborhood could economically hire its own police force, fire department or EMT and ambulance. It’s the job of the city government to provide those necessary services to the community.
The cost of police, fire and EMT should be the very first items paid for out of the city’s core budget. And yet we vote on levies and tax increases in order to fund at least part of those services. Why?
I know that cities often face difficult decisions due to mandates by higher governments. The feds are famous for mandating items that the cities are forced to fund on their own, and then the city has to decide how to fund those items.
I used to live up north in a town that faced a massive upgrade to the water management system because of a new federal mandate that required increased taxes. And I’ve faced levies required to fund increased salaries for EMTs and firefighters. And they deserve it. But why are we funding levies in order to support essential services?
Why aren’t these increases coming from the core budget? I think it’s time that our city leaders start making those hard decisions on what’s to be cut in order to fund our necessary services rather than pawning them off on an already overtaxed citizenry.
Bruce Peterson
Centralia
