Towns and States are in the Federal Soup Line

Apr 02 10

BradPolitics, Rants No Comments

Another excellent article from the Chesterton Tribune: Chesterton’s pluses are minuses in quest for economic development dollars.  I have no problem with the article itself, but it occurred to me while reading it how dependent even small towns have become on the Federal government for handouts of very basic operational funds.

It’s like the towns and cities all have to stand in a Federal soup line begging for money just to re-build sewers and pave roads.  This cannot be healthy.

I’m a Federalist, I think States Rights are important as long as they are not used as an excuse for racism. But for Federalism to work and for the States to act as a check on the powers of the Federal Government, the states have to reduce their dependence on the Federal Treasury.

My way of thinking is that the Federal Government has no business building sidewalks in Chesterton or Otis or Valparaiso.  That is, there are a whole lot of things that the Federal Government is paying for that should be paid for out of State or local funds.

In a perverse way, the Federal Government, by handing out money to local governments, lets the State governments off the hook on such things as raising taxes where needed, tax reform, competency in the local collection and disbursement of state taxes, and more.  It also undercuts the authority and importance of the States: when you accept Caesar’s coin you play by Caesar’s Rules.