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In the late 90s, I authored an essay titled, Our Public Lands: Their Working Capital. Looking back upon it today, it is almost frightening how accurately it predicted the future NOT just of public lands, but of all public assets and the delivery of virtually all public goods and services.
Pasted here is a passage from that essay followed by a passage from one of two newspaper article published today in the Boston Globe. Both were written by the same reporter and both have been condensed by me so as to draw attention to the elements of national importance. In combination they provide an up-to-the-minute update on my years-old essay.
From: Our Public Lands: Their Working Capital
In the coming debate, you will hear all about the benefits of rec-fees and glowing proclamations explaining how federal agencies have been re-invented and are now more responsive to their customers. You will hear sad tales about diminished budgets and be told that user fees will be retained locally to improve local resources. While our land-managers may continue to pay lip service to the idea of biodiversity, conservation and natural resource protection, you must understand that these agencies are being transformed into profit-driven enterprises. Foremost upon their minds are thoughts of downsizing, spinning off unprofitable assets, brand management, customer satisfaction and all the problems associated with running a profitable business. To these former bureaucrats, what were once recognized as our public lands are now considered their "working capital."
From today's Boston Globe
"Depending on the community, it's definitely coming to a crisis point," said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, whose members are juggling rising costs, many with flatlined funding. "If you're not a crisis community, you probably will be, in short order."
The point I'd like to leave you with is that if your community is not already in crisis, it almost certainly will be in short order. The financial crisis which is about to gut the American way of life and hobble all public and social programs, isn't an accident. It is the direct result of the ideology of "Starving the Beast."
Thirty years after this ideology was presented to the American people by President Reagan, the beast has been starved and the consequences are entirely predictable. They were predicted in my 1990s essay and in the writings of many others.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
BOTH ARTICLES HAVE BEEN CONDENSED
Towns turn to fees for revenue
By Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent March 20, 2008
Expecting that many voters will shun tax-limit overrides in a time of
recession, some communities in this area are shifting to pay-as-you-go
services, and charging new or higher fees to support what was once
considered the basic business of government.
One community is considering user self-funding for its library, senior
center, and other services, while another is starting an all-day
kindergarten financed largely by parents. Officials elsewhere are
eyeing menus of new and higher fees to help close looming budget gaps.
"Depending on the community, it's definitely coming to a crisis point,"
said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association
of School Superintendents, whose members are juggling rising costs,
many with flatlined funding. "If you're not a crisis community, you
probably will be, in short order."
Nerves are fraying as local officials try to make the choice between
fees or higher taxes to pay mounting bills that are outrunning
revenues. The choice between a tax hike and fees can crack a community
along fault lines, setting families with schoolchildren against
residents who have no children and are opposed to paying higher
property taxes to support local schools. Sometimes the schools lose out.
"One of the unfortunate things about [school] fees is that they really
are a tax that's paid only by parents, so they're not as controversial
with the general public, and there isn't as much of a backlash against
raising fees," said Thomas Diaz, chairman of the Lexington School
Committee.
Although the program will offer a sliding scale to low-income families,
Diaz acknowledged that the size of the fee might discourage some
middle-income parents from applying. "We're very unhappy about having
to charge a fee, but it struck us as the best way to get started," he
said.
In Chelmsford, officials facing a $2.8 million budget deficit are
considering instituting for the first time what many other communities
already tap as a revenue source - a school bus fee. The $200-per-child
transportation charge would be on top of recent hikes in fees for
sports and extracurricular activities.
Some communities are using small - but still controversial - fees to inch toward a balanced budget.
In Andover, selectmen recently approved raising hourly parking-meter
fees from 25 cents to 50 cents, for an annual revenue boost of
$123,000. Outraged members of the business community demanded a public
forum to discuss the 25-cent hike. A hearing is set for Monday.
2 towns weigh privatizing libraries
By Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent March 20, 2008
Already, some towns across Massachusetts are charging for school
sports, cutting school bus service, and imploring voters to raise
property taxes. But now, in an unprecedented move in the state, two
communities are considering proposals to privatize their libraries.
The separate privatization proposals in Tewksbury and Dartmouth are
still in the early stages, but the idea is nonetheless stunning
advocates in a state where towns often put the word free in the name of
their library.
The general approach would be to turn over the library's day-to-day
operations to private companies. The idea, which would need approval by
the towns in each case, could also put the libraries at risk of losing
state funding.
Celeste Bruno - a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners, which certifies public libraries - said Tewksbury and
Dartmouth would be the first communities in Massachusetts to privatize
their libraries. She said the library commissioners would oppose any
such move. "There is a huge difference between a private, for-profit
company and a library which essentially belongs to the community and
answers to every resident in the Commonwealth," Bruno said.
Budget-balancing proposals include imposing user fees to fund all high
school athletics, senior center services, and trash collection, as well
as library privatization. "They're all lousy ideas, but so is going
broke," said Jay Kelley, chairman of Tewksbury's Financial Planning
Task Force. Kelley said task force members unanimously approved
investigating library privatization after a resident suggested the idea.
Denise Medeiros, the town's library director said that a subcommittee
of the town's Finance Committee is exploring privatization of other
services as well, including the Department of Public Works.
Robert Ferrari, who runs a local blog about issues in Tewksbury said,
"I'm pro-privatizing as much of government as possible." "The
government cannot run anything that a business couldn't do better."
At the two-story brick library, built in 1999, patrons voiced their
concern about privatization. Shannon O'Neil, 19, on spring break from
the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, said she has no Internet
access at her home in Tewksbury and needed the library to study for a
biology course. Said O'Neil: "The library's public, so everyone can use
it."
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