Robin Cox – 11/15/06

This page was last updated on November 15, 2006.

Whole process is wrong; Robin Cox; Beaver County Times; November 15, 2006.

Below is a copy of the letter as I submitted it.

Title: Tax addicts

Some of the reactions to the election results illustrate a problem with how we view our representatives’ job description.

Just as addicts whose drug dealer has been jailed, we’ve heard locals worry about their “fix” of state and/or federal tax dollars now that one incumbent or another is out of the picture.

Other reactions were, “Don’t worry, the new guy will get up to speed.” or the process of receiving walking around money was “unfair” because “I didn’t get my cut.”

Has it occurred to no one the whole process is not simply unfair, but wrong?

Why should local governments have to go on bent knee to get federal/state tax dollars that come out of local paychecks and pension checks in the first place?

When we send to Harrisburg and Washington tax dollars ultimately destined for spending on local responsibilities, we cede power over our lives to these politicians.

Instead of begging state/federal politicians to return our own tax dollars, we should demand they stop taking tax dollars for anything other than purely state and federal responsibilities.

National defense and the State Police are examples of federal/state responsibilities.

Artificial turf football fields, jogging trails, downtown beautification projects, performing arts centers, local roads, local law enforcement, et cetera are NOT federal or state responsibilities.

When local taxpayers won’t pay for these things with local taxes, why should federal/state taxpayers have their pockets picked?

Instead of trying to get new guys like Jim Marshall, Jason Altmire, et cetera to shovel as much pork as they can back to their districts, we should encourage these guys to dismantle the programs that force us to beg for what is ours anyway.

What we don’t cede to Harrisburg and Washington, we don’t have to beg/fight for to get back.