Fundamental change comes to state and local government
Image by Lone Primate via FlickrA new crop of Republican governors is leading a historic retrenchment in the reach of state and local government as they confront a once-in-a-lifetime budget crisis by reducing both spending and taxes.There is much more.
Across the country, governors and legislators are moving to squeeze the pay and benefits of state and local government workers, privatize a wide range of public services and facilities, and sharply reduce state funding for programs that were once all but untouchable, including public schools, universities and unemployment benefits. They’re aiming to close budget gaps projected to be a cumulative $125 billion next year.
“What we are seeing is a fundamental shift,” Susan K. Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said. “Folks have been talking for a long time about the new normal. What you are beginning to see is what the new normal looks like.”
Just as the deep recession created a political opening for President Obama to pass a huge economic stimulus package that included many policies long sought by liberal activists, many GOP governors are using state budget crises to pursue long-held policy ideas such as tax cuts, the expansion of school vouchers and limitations on collective bargaining for public employees.
With a few notable exceptions, the changes are being pursued by governors who refuse to raise taxes, and some are moving aggressively to lower them for corporations and the wealthy. The governors, many elected with the support of tea party activists while promising to sharply curtail spending, view the changes as crucial to improving the economic climates in their states.
The changes are playing out dramatically in Michigan, where lawmakers this week passed legislation to sharply reduce how long people can collect unemployment benefits to 20 weeks. Newly elected Gov. Rick Snyder (R) intends to sign the bill early next week, aides said. The move came one week after Snyder enacted legislation that would allow him to appoint emergency financial managers with power to fire local officials, tear up union contracts, eliminate services and even declare bankruptcy in financially distressed local governments.
New Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio have moved to sharply curtail the compensation and collective bargaining rights of public employees while proposing austere new budgets that envision both tax cuts and deep reductions in aid to schools and local governments.
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Liberalism on the local level has meant ever higher taxes and greater unemployment with the tax payers having to pay ever higher benefits to employees of the political subdivisions. These entities lack the ability to print money or have the Federal Reserve buy their debt. Most are required to balance budgets and they have been running out of other peoples money to pay for things liberals want.
What they are also doing is imitating the success of states that have seen the greatest population and economic growth over the last 10 years. The Federal Government could learn something from that trend.
One of the side benefits of these cuts is that they are defunding the Democrat party and its public employee money machine. It will help them defeat the evils of liberalism.
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