It’s Not About Us Gray Hairs
RIO GRANDE – Four years ago a number of us started meeting monthly to discuss what Cape May County’s primary issues were and to do what we could to address them. So we asked you and your overwhelming response was: property taxes.
Since that time we have learned some things about our taxes and have pulled them together in one chart. We think if we know our total spending in any given category, we will be better able to find more efficient and effective ways to spend our money.
For example, if you are in North Wildwood and make a call to the police at 2 AM, there will be someone on duty to take that call, 365 days a year. If you are a few blocks south, in Wildwood, and make that call, there will also be someone there to take your call. Likewise on the next island up, someone will answer in Stone Harbor and in Avalon. This is repeated all around the county.
At a time when municipal dispatch centers are struggling to upgrade their systems to keep up with the new communications technologies, might it make economic sense to have one central dispatch point to receive your call? And think about severe storm situations. By having central dispatch, we will be more used to functioning seamlessly together as a county. Our freeholders have now taken up the challenge of studying this issue.
Central dispatch is just one small portion of the $746 million identified to date we spend annually on government in Cape May County. What about trash collection? Beach maintenance? And what about schools? $300 million of the $750 million goes there.
Just like anything else, when you take time to look into government spending, you can frequently find ways to do things better, faster and cheaper, but you have to get a good look at the issue. That is what we at Cape Issues have been working on.
In the photo here, you see a bunch of gray hairs, except for that young man down front. He is Tyler Hienkel, a student at Lower Cape May Regional and an intern at the Herald. You could say that he is the one we are doing this for. Our lives are mostly behind us, but just as so many have spent of themselves for us, we want to do the same for all the Tylers of tomorrow.
Examine the chart below entitled Where’s Your Money Going. It shows the categories of government spending totaling approximately three-quarter billion dollars. Building on the work of the Cape Issues group, Tyler made numerous phone calls to governmental agencies to compile the data.
Also take a look at the accompanying graphs. One of them demonstrates that overall taxation in the US a century ago was 8% of our economy. Today it is at 40%… and climbing. Neither our nation, our state nor our county can sustain ever-bigger government spending. Europe’s government spending is larger than ours and the European Central Bank president recently said it can no longer be sustained.
Nationally, given that we fit into a size 8 (%) before, doesn’t it seem within the realm of reason that we can find a way to fit into a size 32 (%) today? We could get there by 2020 if we reduced national spending 2% per year. Cape May County, by reducing 2% annually, would cut that $746 million figure to $622 by 2020 vs. $892 if we grow 2%, which is $270 million, or 30% less.
We could do much better than that, as the private sector has proven. Reducing government spending, at all levels, will require us to redefine the role of government.
We have other challenges. By finding ways to run government more efficiently, we could pocket the savings, or we may choose to invest in reviving the Cape May County economy. Either way, we are maximizing the bang for our tax buck.
We all have different backgrounds and know different things. Please look at the spending chart below and tell us your ideas for reducing spending and/or improving services. Ideas are powerful, and so is public opinion. Abe Lincoln said: “Public opinion in this country is everything.” What the public wants, the public gets; so make your thoughts known, for everyone’s sake, especially Tyler’s generation.
*Note: Minor revisions to some figures have been made since print publication (3/21/2012)
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