He was grilled by Congress for two days last week about "the economy," tax cuts, deficits, and debts.
Every word he uttered had value, but here are a couple of his statements that apply to local problems. From memory: 1. Every government program that exists began with noble intent and can be justified through argument as valuable. Our problem is that we continue to add new ones, without ending others, so the cumulative costs exceed our ability to pay for all of them. Most of us have experienced this first hand - $10 here, $50 there - and before we know it - we owe $5,000 on the old credit card. Any one expenditure makes sense at the moment, but add them all together and you find a whopping debt + interest to pay. 2. Many State governments follow the Federal tax code, so if Federal taxes are reduced, the State's revenue is reduced too. Mr. Greenspan said that the States may have to come up with their own tax structure (not mimic the Fed) to balance their budgets. This same logic applies to local governments: Rather than depend on the Feds and/or the State, Cities should come up with a taxing method that balances their own budgets. Listening between the lines, these are the trends that I heard him frame....... The money is all mixed up between the levels of government, so we need to separate each governmental entity financially, so the "people" know what they're getting and what they're paying for. Interest rates are low, which puts support under the economy. Nothing on the horizon indicates an increase in rates. This is an opportunity to reduce debt, before the economy perks up again and rates begin to rise. Vicky Heller Cedar-Riverside and North Oaks TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
