Ed Garvey: Dumping on government
When you think about it, who needs government? Conventional wisdom acknowledges that government is inefficient, often clumsy, and always expensive. Elections are expensive and you never know who might get elected. Riffraff can, on occasion, sneak in. Ah, the private sector is so much better!
So let's get rid of government, streamline our institutions, cut services -- what is the idea of "entitlements" anyway? Out of work? Get a job! We got rid of the poor through welfare reform, didn't we? Let's get rid of unemployment comp -- force them to find work!
Consider the advice of Sheldon Lubar, Gov. Jim Doyle's co-chair of a task force appointed to look into the financial problems facing Milwaukee County under County Executive Scott Walker. Lubar is working alongside the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
I get an empty feeling in Madison because there is no "Greater Madison Committee" to identify problems, set the agenda for local government, and determine, in secret sessions, how to cut services and taxes. The lucky people of Milwaukee have the comfort of a shadow government, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, comprised mostly of the economic elite, to guide Milwaukee officials and frame the debate on public policy -- behind a curtain. No need for silly transparency. You know, open meetings and open records. Deals made in private are better.
Take county government as an example. Sheldon Lubar spoke to the Milwaukee Rotary Club last week . He described Milwaukee County government, under Scott Walker, as "archaic, inefficient and dysfunctional." He got guffaws from his audience when he opined that "county government wouldn't work if Jesus was county exec and Moses chaired the Board of Supervisors." (Or, apparently, Scott Walker.)
Lubar advocates that county government be junked.
Milwaukee County is run by a "no-new-taxes-and-no-old-ones either" Republican, Scott Walker, who has done his best to sell off county parks, cut social services, close swimming pools for the kids on hot summer days, and -- place a bet -- he will make another attempt to sell Mitchell International Airport to private investors.
Walker, a true ideologue, is unbending. A "my way or the highway" guy who threatened to place the county he is charged to operate in bankruptcy rather than raise taxes. If he has any compassion for struggling families and the unemployed in Milwaukee, he masks it well.
So don't believe for a minute that Lubar is aiming his arrows at Walker. Hell's bells, Walker agrees with Lubar! One can almost hear him holler: "Get rid of my county! I'm running for governor!"
But pesky elected officials, who take their oath of office more seriously than our cold-hearted and humorless Walker, keep asking questions of Walker. The basic question that should be asked is, "If you hate government so much, why do you run for office?"
The city and county of Milwaukee need help. But dumping county government is hardly the answer. Pledges of "no new taxes," when the needs are growing due to this recession, just don't cut it. And if you are enamored of the private sector, ask how the rebuilding of Iraq and New Orleans are coming along.
How about metropolitan government, Mr. Lubar? How about having the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee join the problem-solving by paying their fair share of the costs of making Milwaukee that Great City on a Great Lake?
Democracy is under assault. Businesses often insist that parties agree to use private arbitrators rather than a court of law; Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce wants to buy the courts; special interests nominate and fund corrupt candidates for office; and the Bradley Foundation, Charlie Sykes and GMC folks think they can operate the airports, highways, museums and schools better than those do-good civil servants.
Enough of doomsday nonsense. It is time for our governments at all levels to get together to find real solutions to huge problems. We can solve our fiscal problems if we arrive at the table in good faith and with a commitment to serve the commonwealth -- not just private wealth.
Ending government is not the answer. Electing good people to office with public campaign funding makes more sense.
Ed Garvey is a Madison lawyer, political activist and the editor of the fightingbob.com Web site.
Sheldon Lubar
