One of the arguments behind massive government spending vs. across-the-board tax cuts to pull out of a recession is that our elected leaders will do a better job spending the money than the regular citizens of the country.
But, can you really trust these people to spend tax dollars wisely?
Here are two cases that show you cannot. One story involves a governor spending precious tax dollars to hire friends and supporters into high-paying hack jobs; the second involves a mayor who won't spend money to protect an event that will draw a million tourists into his city.
(Massachusetts) Gov. Deval Patrick has stashed four staffers in big-bucks jobs at several of the quasi-public agencies he is now vowing to reform - including one post worth a jaw-dropping $190,000 a year, the Herald has learned.These appointments come just days after the uber-Liberal Patrick tried to stuff a long-time supporter into a $175,000-a-year job that had been vacant for 12 years.
Outrage is sweeping Beacon Hill after Gov. Deval Patrick quietly slipped a $175,000 plum job to a political pal while squeezing taxpayers to pay more for less from the debt-ridden state government....(the state) while bracing for cuts of cops and teachers, Patrick awarded supporter Marian Walsh the pricey plum as assistant executive director of the state’s Health and Educational Facilities Authority.
MHEFA is an organization that 99.5% of Mass residents had never heard of until last week.
While we are talking Massachusetts hack-o-rama, consider the following:
Robert Rooney, a former $123,000-a-year deputy secretary of public works in the transportation office, is still working at the (Massachusetts Turnpike Authority) as a $122,000-a-year assistant chief engineer, Flagg confirmed last night. Rooney’s job was to help bring down the tolls on the Western Turnpike, a job that is no longer part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s transportation reform plans.
From this article, we can assume that Rooney is getting paid big bucks to engineer a project that won't happen?
On the other side of the tax coin is "esteemed" Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who is apparently refusing to pay for any city services to support the visit by the Tall Ships, an event destined to attract more than a million visitors to his city.
Menino is the guy in the middle in this photo, in case you don't know him.
Sail Boston officials said Wednesday the event that attracts millions of visitors to see the windjammers parade through the harbor will go ahead, even though they missed a deadline to give the city $2 million.
That angered Mayor Tom Menino, who told The Boston Globe that holding the event without city services could cause a "public safety crisis." He says he may ask the Coast Guard to bar the 50 ships from the harbor.
The notion that the mayor would actively consider preventing an event that will attract tourist into his city in July is mind-boggling.
(Menino) said he would withhold all city services for the nautical extravaganza - no police officers, no cleanup crews - even though nearly 1 million people are projected to descend on the city...This (PDF) report indicates that Sail Boston 2000 would have a massive positive impact on revenues in Boston:
The results .... show that total economic activity in the Greater Boston region of the Sail Boston event will be $88.96 million (in year 2000 dollars). The majority of that activity - $64.66 million or 73% - will be in the city of Boston where the event takes place.This report indicates that the city might lose money, as the expenses outstrip the tax revenues. But, in 2000, the small investment by the city was worth the significant business in Boston and surrounding communities received.
Why not this year? This is a year when businesses need the help, and most experts believe that fewer people will be going away for vacation, leaving a huge pool of people looking for something to do on a July weekend.
The one question that remains is whether Menino will try to get Ol' Ironsides to protect Boston Harbor once again from an incursion by an enemy fleet.
These are the people who Barack Obama considers better guardians of YOUR money than YOU, and know better how to spend YOUR money to repair this economy.
Forgive me, Deval, if I am a skeptic.
