The following letter to my local papers addresses something we could all do, albeit a small gesture, to remind politicians that they work for us.
Elaine McConnell is one of our County’s elected Supervisors. She served 24 years and recently chose not to run for reelection. What I say is irrespective of her spending habits with our money or her political party. My County has an annual budget of over $6 Billion dollars and they are always about to go broke. We have a County Center that rivals the Taj Mahal and important folks (not you and me) park close to it and others sign up for a Volksmarch to get from public parking to the lines by the offices of very highly paid bureaucrats.
What I suggest here is equally applicable to State and federal elected officials and I suggest that whenever you get the chance, ask your elected officials to sponsor legislation as mentioned below.
WHAT'S IN A NAMEThe recent decision by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to name the
new Public Safety Center on West Ox Road the McConnell Public Safety and
Transportation Operations Center is bad public policy. "Recognizing" the
activities of elected officials by "naming" public facilities and works
after them should be forbidden until they have been deceased for at least
five years.
Elected officials serve because they freely choose to run for office and
they are compensated (and pensioned) handsomely at the federal, state, and
particularly at the County level in Fairfax County. The fact that so many
elected officials at all levels make political offices into lifetime careers
is something that we should not encourage. Naming public facilities and
works after politicians is an act by politicians to foster a practice of
"recognizing" the "service" of each other and this only alienates them
further from the rest of us that pay the bills regardless of recessions or
downturns in the housing market.
As state and County officials moan and groan about "deficits", and the need
to "increase taxes", and establish "fees" (that aren't taxes according to
our officials), and as they make State Troopers into Revenue Agents
collecting exorbitant fines only from those drivers that are already paying
their salaries: the last thing we need is more reasons for the politicians
to spend our money. Whether it is at the federal, state, or County level;
this "naming" nonsense is a common ploy by bureaucrats to get more of our
money from politicians. Look at all the National Wildlife Refuges renamed
and named after powerful politicians that control funding. Look at all the
"Visitor Centers" and public facilities and works named after local
Congressmen that "get" money. Look at all the bridges and roads named after
politicians you never heard of. "More" tax money was and is spent, and more
money is diverted to low priority things than you can imagine because these
politicians "recognize" each other like this and then hope one day to also
obtain, believing it gives them "immortality".
The law should prohibit this for at least 5 years after their death. If
they are so great, see who remembers them. In the meantime if you need
names, forget about the politicians and name them after military members
killed in action or policemen killed on the job or some historical figure
that we should remember like one of the Founding Fathers or some President -
regardless of his political party. That way we could build "consensus" and
don't we all want that?
Jim Beers
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