Fiscal Federalism In Sunnyside
February 20, 2009 6 Comments
At Tuesday night’s special meeting of the Sunnyside City Council, Eric Swansen, the City Manager, complained that under our system of “fiscal federalism” FAA grant money for the airport could not be used to fund other aspects of the City government. That is why Council thought it would be a good idea to take funds from some of those other areas and fund the local match for airport improvements. In their mind, they had no choice.
Respectfully, I disagree. This “found” money to fund airport improvements came from sales tax revenue. Correct me if I am wrong, but this does not sound like a one-time influx of cash, but rather like revenue the City is depending on for day to day operations. Having worked in the retail and transportation industries, I can tell you that business activities are subject to seasonal fluctuations. When the times are good, you need to think about how you will manage the slow times, and prepare for it.
Relying on handouts from the federal government is not a good long-term policy if we want to develop our local economy. Federal grants should not be the driving factor in how our City government develops and implements policy.
We can take control of our own destiny, and not be serfs to the fiscal federalism that Mr. Swansen spoke of. This starts with Council taking a look at the City budget and making some potentially unpopular choices. Nobody likes budget cuts, but there are ways we can save money. We can do this without compromising public safety further by cutting law enforcement officers.
We need to examine employee pay and benefit packages that take the lion’s share of the budget. While in retail management, I had to make sure payroll expenses were controlled for the company to remain solvent. While working in the health insurance industry, I gained experience with servicing benefit packages for literally hundreds of employer groups (to include union and government benefit contracts). We need to start to become innovators in policy, making changes that will streamline operations. If we don’t, then we will have more taxes, and less services for the citizens of Sunnyside. Human resource staff, the unions, and Council will need to work together to make meaningful changes for the benefit of the community.
All options need to be considered. If we don’t get serious about this, then we can expect another round of pay raises for employees next year, increases in cost to their benefits packages, more increases in taxes, more cuts in services, and cuts to personnel to raise the money to pay to pay for it all.
About Jason R. Raines
Eagle Watch
jimsweb.net
WSRP BLOG
Jason, although I agree that relying on “hand-outs” from the Federal government is not the way to do business, I disagree with you on the issue of the Airport.
I consider myself a Constitutionalist, and as I see it, this type of support is exactly what the Framers intended the Federal goverment to be used for.
The FAA hasn’t granted an airport permit in this country in 50 years. Do you honestly think that if we allow our Airport to deteriorate to the point that it is no longer usuable or safe that the FAA will allow us to keep our permit?
On the contrary; if we lose our permit, I can almost guarantee, we will never get another.
The Airport in Sunnyside is an unpolished jewel, and if we don’t do what we can to keep it, we will lose it.
As I said in the meeting, Opportunity knocks, but once, we have a responsibility to not squander what we have, what we were given because of the foresight of individuals that came before us.
Thank you for your feedback Jim. This is one of those issues where we will have to agree to disagree. I can certainly understand your reasoning in voting to go for the grant money. As several members of Council noted, the timing of the grant was not the best, but to secure funds it was necessary to do it now vs. later. However, this is not to say I agree with the philosophy of Federal control over the process.
I believe that the Federal government does have a role to play in regulation of aviation (interstate commerce, etc.), but disagree with it being the driving force behind 95-100% of airport development. You won’t get any buy-in from me on that aspect of development.
We have an overbearing Federal government that does not allow new airports as you point out. They also don’t allow new nuclear power plants, oil refineries, drilling for oil in our country, and a host of other aspects of development. Even green sources of energy like hydro-electric dams and windmills are resisted. Locally, we have had multiple moratoriums on development just in the last year. Please don’t misread what I am saying about our local airport. I want it to succeed just as much as I want all individuals in our community to succeed. It’s just that I see government (especially Federal) involvement as more of an impediment to progress than you do.
Now that the vote has been taken, I wish for the best possible outcome not only for the airport, but for all citizens of the community.
Jason, thanks for the response. I am not so sure you and I are as split as you seem to think. I agree with you wholeheartedly that the government, especially the Federal has done it’s level best to inject itself into areas where it doesn’t belong, and in most cases has been the cause of numerous problems because of it.
As you know Jefferson and Hamilton had this same fight over 170 years ago, and supposedly Jefferson won, but if you look around today, especially after the bailout, I see the ghost of Hamilton everywhere.
Thanks again for your response.
Jim, the ghost of Hamilton is indeed causing issues in our banking system. Even Alan Greenspan (former free market capitalist) is now calling for nationalisation of our banks.
Even though Federal grant money does not come directly from the City budget, it is being taken out of the economy at large. This is either directly through taxes, or indirectly through inflation and debt that our children will be burdened with.
In 1999, government consumed about 34% of GDP. We are now at 40%. European style socialist countries have government consume about 47% of their GDP. We are rapidly closing the gap with the European model of government.
Eventually the people will start to figure out that government inefficiencies are a drag on the economy and will demand things be rolled back. My hope is that it happens sooner, rather than later.
Although we may not agree on all issues, I respect your positions and opinions. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan: Someone that agrees with me 80% of the time is someone I call a friend.
Glad to hear Jim’s philosophy on the airport. No one that I have heard of is against this airport flourishing. But it seems Jim’s jibberish goes on and on. The way Jim is stating his thoughts is that this city would NEVER get matching funds again on this airport if they passed them up this time. That is a FALSE statement.
Jim is talking about this airport as a diamond in the rough that we must save. Lets compare this to another diamond in the rough. The diamonds in the Congo. This city councils infactuation towards this airport (diamond in the rough) coincided perfectly with what is happening in the Congo. The rebels in the Congo are killing anyone for the control of the diamonds. Life means very little to these people. Now what is so similar to the rebels in the Congo and our city council. Not alot it seems. This city laid off police officers at a time young men are getting killed in this city. The diamond in the rough airport was more important that young men’s lives. So in all actuality; the rebels and our city council, hospital and POrt of Sunnmyside is putting a diamond in the rough ahead of life ! And some day down the road. Either their grandkid or son or daughter will be in the line of fire of some gang shootout and then maybe something will click in their brains !