Budget Ideas
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park – who knows his way around a city budget – writes:
The Legislature failed to reach agreement with the Governor meaning no state aid money for cities. Mayor Coleman wants to know how many cops the Republicans want him to lay off to balance the City budget.
Of course, the rest of the city’s bureaucracy is off limits. But we digress.
Sad to say, Mayor Coleman has a point. In the Obama Economy of straitened finances, local government may be forced to privatize some services including aspects of police protection. Citizens may need to assume responsibility for their own safety. But many people have found themselves unable to afford to do so, or have been prohibited from doing so, by onerous government regulation or market forces. How can we address this urgent public safety issue consistent with reduced city government revenues?
It’s a tough question. But Joe has an idea:
I think Congress should pass a Community Re-Armament Act requiring gun dealers to sell pistols to people who traditionally have been underserved in the firearms market (felons, minors, the insane); establish a federal agency to subsidize the price of those guns at taxpayer expense; assign BATF to audit gun dealers to make sure they’re selling enough guns to children upon pain of losing their dealer’s licenses; have Community Organizers sue high-profile gun dealers for “redlining” by failing to make enough such sales; wait 15 years to view results.
Empowering those traditionally excluded from power: I’m astonished Barney Frank isn’t all over this idea. Hey, it worked so well in the housing market. What could possibly go wrong?
Joe Doakes
Como Park
Leave out the “felons, minors, the insane” bit, and it could work…
May 27th, 2011 at 9:14 am
This kind of language is used all the time by bureaucrats. When someone constantly refers to “eliminating health disparities” rather than “improving health”, you have to ask if they realize that the one is ambiguous (“do you want to bring everyone up or down to the same level of health?”) and the other good. Even “improving health” can be taken to insane ends: “freedom isn’t healthy for you, so no more freedom for you!”. And they do (“gun death epidemic” anyone?).
May 27th, 2011 at 9:25 am
You know, there are some aspects of police work that could be outsourced to security firms. The same companies that supply armed security officers for banks, armored cars, etc. could also perform tasks like jailer and prisoner transport, maintaining the evidence room, fingerprinting and processing suspects. This would free up the police officers that normally handle these tasks to be on the streets.
May 27th, 2011 at 9:37 am
Yeah, lets go for some more of those unfunded mandates that minimize accountability and transparency. That seems to be a recurrent problem with conservative proposed solutions.
This suggestion doesn’t appear any better than one of the reasons Dayton vetoed that crappy voter ID bill (from his letter to the GOP legislature on THAT topic at http://penigma.blogspot.com/2011/05/governor-dayton-vetoes-voter-id-bill.html):
“In addition, this bill is an unfunded mandate on local units of governments at all levels–counties, cities, townships, and school boards. There is a $23 million dollar cost, documented with a local impact note from the Department of Management and Budget, that has been totally ignored. At a time when local governments are facing dramatic cuts, adding another mandate without financial assistance is irresponsible.”
Conservative privatization of services and authority – like the independent contractors swindling the U.S. Government as effectively war profiteers – consistently result in dramatically higher costs, not savings, with concomittant loss of accountability and control. Conservative privatization, while an ideology mantra, is consistently a disaster, usually a far far more expensive disaster.
The potential legal liability of the Doakes proposal is horrendous.
May 27th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Yeah, lets go for some more of those unfunded mandates that minimize accountability and transparency.
My God, are you really that dense, Doggie? Obama has implemented more “unfunded mandates” than any president in history.
And that “crappy voter ID bill” was supported by 80% of the the people. So much for democracy. Liberal Democrats hate democracy. But then, you know that, dontcha?
May 27th, 2011 at 11:12 am
“Conservative privatization of services and authority – like the independent contractors swindling the U.S. Government as effectively war profiteers – consistently result in dramatically higher costs, not savings, with concomittant loss of accountability and control. Conservative privatization, while an ideology mantra, is consistently a disaster, usually a far far more expensive disaster. ”
Well, Doggy, your libturd heroes in Congress share the blame on this for no oversight, but then, you couldn’t prove that this happens on more than an isolated basis if your life depended on it!
And by all means, let’s look at the over $2 M in non essential purchases via welfare EBT cards, overlooked and exacerbated for years due to libturd rule here in MN. Hell, for all we know, you’re one of the ones abusing the system to get your booze and butts!
Geez! You are so pathetic!
May 27th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
DG, I am so sorry for your loss.
If there is something I can do that hasn’t been tried already, I’d give it a shot.
May 27th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
DG,
You do realize, don’t you, that Joe isn’t calling for a mandate of any kid. He’s satirizing government’s approach to fixing perceived problems.
You may want to re-respond with that in mind.
May 27th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
That crappy ID bill cost $23 million in unfunded mandates to local government, and it violated federal law – all to solve a nonexistant problem other than the ridiculous fraud conspiracy theories in your own mind.
Mitch wrote:
“He’s satirizing government’s approach to fixing perceived problems.”
The right has so many unfounded ‘perceived’ problems in their conspiracy-ridden minds, it gets hard to tell what is serious and what is satire. Given the lack of reality and objective fact based statements that so often come from the right.
Bosshoss, don’t smoke, never have; rarely drink, and have not abused any system.
May 27th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
bosshoss wrote:
“Well, Doggy, your libturd heroes in Congress share the blame on this for no oversight, but then, you couldn’t prove that this happens on more than an isolated basis if your life depended on it!”
Yes, I could. I can prove that it happens often, that there is little oversight, that this outsourcing /private contracting was a project of conservatives – notably Dick Cheney, for one example, whose former company Haliburton has been involved in massive fraud.
Mitch said a few posts ago that I got my information from Daily Kos and Huff Po. He couldn’t be more wrong – Daily Kos apparently reads me somewhat more than the other way round, including linking to Penigm. I was delighted recently to see Penigma (again, one of my posts) listed ahead of HuffPo for research in something in the PiPress.
Perhaps some of you should try reading sources that are more fact based than Fox not-really-News, or relying on right wing talk radio, either serious or sort-of-enteratinment. I read conservative sources far more than I read left wing blogs or other media, and I try to fact check all of them.
Looks to me like some of you could do with being better read.
May 27th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
That crappy ID bill cost $23 million in unfunded mandates to local government, and it violated federal law
Oh please, Doggie, cite the “federal law” that it violated. Do some “FACT CHECKING for us bumpkins. While your at it, show us where the $23 million figure came from. Or continue to be a coward.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Kermit, already did that, this morning – it came from the Department of Management and Budget,
Ditto the reference to violating federal law, in the same post; but I can find you plenty of others.
http://penigma.blogspot.com/2011/05/governor-dayton-vetoes-voter-id-bill.html
I’m no coward. I write for five different blogs, am additionally admin on 4; that means I don’t always get back to something here as often as I’d like. But if any of you wish to pursue an answer to something I’ve missed, please feel free to address it to me at penigma2@hotmail.com, along with the url for which post, and I will be happy to reply.
Btw, bosshoss, you would do well to look at the POGO archives as well as the extensive reports from the various Inspector Generals. Scribd is an excellent source as is the Congresional Research Service.
Here is another site that can start you in the correct direction re where privatizing has gone horribly, consistently wrong:
http://www.sequenceinc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:iraq-reconstruction-fraud-where-are-your-tax-dollars-going
I don’t think you will find the Wisconsin Law Journal is a ‘liberal source of information’… you can risk reading there without fear of contamination by new ideas although you will be at risk of encountering information and facts with which you are apparently unfamiliar.
Thank you Mitch; it was two years ago that you teased me here enough to pique my curiosity, leading me to contact Pen, and subsequently join him on Penigma. What a long strange trip it has been, and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. Having you for a friend is always an adventure.
You were right Mitch, when you told me blogging is FUN!!!!!!
May 27th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
it came from the Department of Management and Budget,
Which is NOT a non-partisan source. MMB is part of the executive branch; its head, Jim Schowalter, was appointed by Goverrnor Dayton and serves solely at his discretion.
Also, the modeling from which MMB derives its numbers does not account for savings that come from reforms; independent consultants have pointed this out as a flaw in their figures.
Not only should things not be trusted just because they come from the government, but in fact it should be explicitly held against them.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
It’s not my only source either Mitch; I would refer you to the rather large number of County Clerks, who are the top acting election officials for each county, both liberal AND conservatives, who make very similar claims.
They are all against it; I couldn’t find a single one who was in favor of this bill.
The assertion that this would be both an unwieldy and disastrously expensive law that would not make us even the most minutely bit safer from election fraud first came to my attention from primary sources when it came up at the county seat where I was working as part of the recount committee for the Dayton/Emmer race.
But that was the conclusion under Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty’s adminsitration as well; TPaw also vetoes a similar attempt to implement voter ID.
It doesn’t work, and it costs a lot of money, while doing nothing. And the legislature made NO provisions whatsoever to assist with those costs – another Republican unfunded mandate.
I’d also suggest you should research attempts to implement voter ID in other states and what it cost those states – and what they got for it (zilch).
I don’t single source Mitch, never have.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Note the many sources cited for the crazy “Dick Cheney HALIBURTON HALIBURTON HALIBURTON EEEVIIIL!” reference. So silly.
May 27th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Dog Gone, how close is $23,000,000.00 to $2,000,000,000.00? I can see you are SO concerned about spending as long as its about voter ID, but this other spending the Governor has his heart set on is … just fine?
Oh, and if that $2,000,000,000.00 is really, really, super, extra essential, then the what was the $2,000,000,000.00 he “compromised” away? Fun money?
May 27th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Doggy, as a libturd, you have no room to talk about “unfunded mandates” when your heroes in the MN Dumbass party have been doing that in MN for decades!
Me thinks that you doth protest too much which leads me to ask; How many people have you vouched for at the polls?
May 27th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Kinda reminds me of all the caterwauling the left did over the Ken Starr hearings with Bill Clinton. “WE WASTED $40 MILLION DOLLARS SO THAT SOME NUTBAG COULD GET HIS JOLLIES LISTENING TO THE PRESIDENT DESCRIBE HIS INTIMATE PRIVATE MATTERS!!!!!1!111!”
Hell, congress collectively sneezes and they use $40 million in kleenex.
When you have poll results ranging from 59% all the way up to 93% (depending on demographic) in favor of enacting photo ID all of DG’s (DogGone and Demented Governor) pissing and moaning about “OMG! $23MILLION!! THAT’S AN UNBEARABLE BURDEN!!” is what’s known as ‘crocodile tears’.
To put it less delicately, the governor just drenched 3/4 of this state in a hyper-partisan golden shower.