John Gunyou is, IMO, a Minnesota treasure. His talent for deflating demagogues with actual facts -- drawing on his 30 years of experience in running city governments -- brings a sober moderation to some potentially inflammatory debates.
I've written before about the Taxpayers League and the low-tax religion. In a column in today's Star Tribune, Gunyou tackles the two at once.
We've been thinking that we need to invest even more resources in road maintenance and traffic control. Silly us. We should be tackling those problems like the Taxpayers League would.
So here's what I came up with: inverted speed bumps. Rather than patch potholes, we should embrace them as traffic control devices. That way, we could forgo the expense of road repair AND cut funding for public safety. And the true genius is, we'll save more and more money every year as our roads continue to deteriorate and motorists are forced to drive even slower!
Why, there's no limit to this kind of creative thinking. Here's another one: perpetual student teachers. Indentured servitude was good enough for our founding fathers, so why not use it from preschool through grad school?...
Or how about random drug dispensing? If we mixed in cheap placebos with the real pills, prescription drugs would be far more affordable, pharmacists wouldn't have to decide who they want to serve, and we'd cull the herd of costly sickos. OK, this one needs a little more work, but you get the concept.
With a little creative thought and courageous political leadership, it really is possible to get something for nothing. The Taxpayers League was right all along.
Gunyou for governor!!
taxes, Minnesota, Taxpayers League, gunyou, politics, midtopia
3 comments:
"His talent for deflating demagogues with actual facts -- drawing on his 30 years of experience in running city governments -- brings a sober moderation to some potentially inflammatory debates."
Um. Hmmm. Just one question:
Can you name an "actual fact" in that screed?
Just a question. :-)
Heh; fair point. The "facts" bit was more of a general reference to his body of work; this one was more satirical.
Though if you read the column, the two paragraphs preceding the part I quoted say the following:
In the city I manage, speeding and road repair are our residents' two greatest concerns. Like most cities, more than two-thirds of the property taxes we collect are allocated to our police and street budgets.
We also fund our roads with a share of the gas tax, but the state hasn't raised that user fee for 18 years, so our allocation has been largely frozen. Asphalt obviously costs more than it used to, so we've had to double the property taxes devoted to our local streets in recent years.
By the way, folks, that's "David" as in "David Strom", the voice of the Taxpayer's League. Much as I disagree with him, I'm tickled that he stopped by my humble blog.
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