Column by David Reynolds
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The times are tough. And local budgets will be as tough to balance as having an elephant walk across a balance beam. Where do we begin?
Cut spending and raise taxes are the answers usually given. The right says cut; the left says raise. But such conventional methods usually involve the old meat ax approach – one fueled by anger.
But this is not the time – it never was – for crude instruments to satisfy mob mentality. It is time for better medicine, to use a scalpel to carefully trim away low priority programs. While never a popular procedure, such trimming allows us to get to a balancing point without falling off. It is not only favored by the people, it is required by law. Consider a scalpel as a seat belt, one that prevents budgets from serious crashes.
So, if we carefully trim when deciding how best to spend our local tax dollars we will be ahead of the game. And we will not foolishly cut out the heart of government.
Unthinking across-the-board cuts and unthinkable tax hikes produce shoddy results. In other words, they don’t cut it. We need to pass on to those we elect this simple fact of political life. We don’t need to hear any more complaints about all the tough choices they have to make. And we don’t need to see any more salty tears.
Sometimes I wonder why we hold elections. Is it to pay good money for others to cry on our shoulders? I don’t believe so. It is to elect grown men and women to tell the rest of us to put away our toys. One toy, not an expensive one, but a small luxury, nonetheless, is making private voluntary giving to charities an involuntary public act by government.
As the White House loves to say, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” So why waste the recession on the home front? Why not do away with public funding of private programs?
If we cut nonprofits will the valley survive? Sure it will. And just as surely, it is an unpopular road to travel. But leadership should never be confused with popularity. Local officials: Take the heat, it’s been a cold winter.
The Lexington YMCA may be the first nonprofit to be left on the budget floor. It need not be the last. However, the city council still gave it a token $5,000. Memorandum to city councils and boards of supervisors everywhere: Tokens are for New York subways. Here in the Valley, five grand is real money. Our money. Don’t buy tokens with it.
The “Y” cut seems to have worked. We took the right fork in the road. There are no angry mobs marching down Main Street. Meaning, it is safe to go back into the woods and do more cutting.
And “Y” not? The answer usually comes back in the form of a theory. The theory is that nonprofits perform a good and valuable public function. And if they did not exist local government would be paying more to carry out their services.
Good theory, bad policy. It is mush. Question: If the function nonprofits perform is so essential, is of such high priority, why are they not part of government? We need to clearly separate our public and private worlds. Many like to talk about separation of church and state. Isn’t it time to talk about separation of public and private responsibilities? It may not save our souls, but it will save our tax dollars.
By the way, what is a nonprofit? Only a CPA knows for sure. I’m not one, but I do know that “profit” is not a dirty word. However, some think so, including those who walk into retirement homes or sit on hospital boards. When SJH got hitched it became CSJH. Carilon’s competitor suitor was AMC, now Augusta Health, a “for profit” hospital. The community hospital’s link went south instead of north. The marriage has worked, but we did it for the wrong reason.
Before we close let us be clear about our position towards local charities. They deserve your support and mine. Surely they need money. And just as surely many of us have three bucks to spare which can go to better use than having a Pepsi at UVa’s Scott Stadium.
But should not that support be direct and voluntary? Supporting charity work though taxes is neither. It is an end run. Let’s not waste a budget crisis. Let charities compete for our hearts and minds. Directly. They will win and so will we. Only the tax man loses.
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