As I have aged — less than gracefully — and retired, I have become acutely aware of a couple things; first, how much it costs me to live in a house I have owned for years, and, second, each legislative session of Washington state only making it even more expensive.
Besides ever-increasing taxes, Democratic lawmakers continue to meddle with regulations in other aspects of owning a house, such as insurance, which has only added to the expense.
After my father died when I was about 5 or 6 years old, my widowed mother somehow managed to survive with four small children. One of the things I remember from those times was not having much money. As a child, I didn’t understand that, but I knew she could write a check for anything we wanted.
So, I’d ask, why didn’t she just do that?
As an adult, I learned why you don’t spend what you don’t have. It meant sometimes, especially in my young married life, saying no to things I wanted. Still, others around me seemed to have nicer things and didn’t seem to have more resources than me.
How did they do that?
Thankfully, I had a brilliant wife with much more sense than me who kept us (me) from being our own worst enemy.
Today, what we’ve seen over time is a government taking more all the time and spending more than they have. When they get ahead, what do they do? Yep. Spend it. And then spend more.
Then they come back and say “well, we can’t cut anything we have, so we need more from you.”
This is true at every level of government and, at some point, there will be pain because there will be no more to squeeze from the lowly taxpayer to support too many pet projects that are nice, but cost money we don’t have.
For years, we have been warned about the federal deficit, and we need to do something about it or it will end America as we know it. It seems like the existential threat we keep hearing about that really might be.
We are told Social Security (but not welfare) will run out of money in a few years. Medicare, too. Yet, what happens in Washington, D.C.? They start new projects we can’t afford, borrow money we don’t have and proverbially kick the can down the road, as they say.
And promptly spend more on new stuff.
If, as an individual, you spend like a drunken sailor and get upside down, there is always bankruptcy, but there will be pain. And spending cuts. And difficult spending choices that have to be made.
That is how I see what's happening today across all levels of government.
Our state was warned over and over by most Republicans that spending was not sustainable and, despite that, they spent, and now they seem to be trying to tax everything they can see, but cutting nothing.
I love my kids and my grandkids. I have fond memories of all the years I coached kids when we all were much younger. So having programs is great for kids. But we can’t afford everything they wanted then, and we certainly can’t now.
I don’t have any axe to grind about the United Learning Center under construction in Centralia, but it does seem to suddenly be a local story. It’s big, probably nicely designed, and certainly important to some people.
But suddenly its federal funding appeared in doubt, or at least delayed. I’m sure it’s President’s Trump’s fault.
Meanwhile, the City of Centralia voted to spend $1.5 million to, I guess, help finish it. I suppose they are flush with cash. It was approved, but it raised a question in my mind: what about next year? And the year after?
Sometimes, it's not the building that is the most expensive, but the year-over-year operation cost.
Can they afford that?
Like everyone else, I just paid my income taxes and thought about Sesame Street in the Middle East that we funded through USAID, and all of the other things we waste money on that Congress should be ashamed of.
Closer to home, a recent Chronicle headline read “after 10 years and $31 million, Washington state workers comp upgrade has little to show.” And they want $18 million more. Plus, it’s expected to cost $240 million and remains nine years from completion.
That is the poster child for waste and fraud in our Washington.
Regardless of how you feel about cuts that should be made or could be made, this kind of inept efficiency is only symptomatic of the government in general and leaves me wondering why we tolerate it.
Worse, why do our elected officials, who are supposed to be stewards of our taxes, tolerate it?
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
