Trego's Mountain Ear

A century ago, our nation’s varied governments – local, state and federal – spent about 4% of the country’s gross domestic product.  Now I see a quote that it’s about 36%.  To the north, I see that the folks who manage their retirement funds increased that value by 8% – on a playground where things went up by 18%.

Another comment was a need to return to Reagan’s policies – yet government spending didn’t shrink under Reagan – it just went from being primarily funded by taxes to becoming increasingly funded through borrowing.  Here are a few numbers that assign the increase in national debt to a specific presidential administration ( US Debt by President | Chart & Per President Deficit | Self. )                   

To find an administration where the national debt went down, we have to go back to Calvin Coolidge:

Andrew Jackson almost eliminated the national debt, Calvin Coolidge was the last President to reduce the debt, and Franklin Pierce, at the end of his term, commented “There’s nothing left to do but get drunk.”

It’s easy to spend other people’s money.  In five years on the local school board, I’ve watched proposals that required spending taxpayer dollars come before the board for the first time at that meeting and get funded.  When I started, I was one that voted that way.  After a couple of years, I began to realize – we don’t have many elected leaders like Coolidge, Jackson and Pierce.  Too often, we give our elected officials a credit card and let them go ahead. 

At the county level, our property values are increasing rapidly – which increases the tax revenues . . . and before that, the main funding for county operation came from timber harvests on the national forest.  There’s been a turnover in commissioners – but over most of the years, they’ve spent other people’s money.

Somehow, we’ve avoided sales tax in Montana – but it is moving in with cities like Whitefish adding it first.  And it makes sense to the city fathers under the Big Mountain – they’re taxing destination tourists, and getting other peoples’ money.  The desire to get a hold on other peoples’ money to spend is great.  The desire to manage public funds conservatively is not.

Lincoln County was logically and rationally created in 1909 – the county consisted of a single watershed, traversed by a single railroad line.  It was possible to send a postcard from Trego to Libby and get a reply the same day.  Things changed when Koocanusa filled – the communities between Jennings Rapids and Douglas Hill were gone.  There was no longer the linkage between the county seat at Libby and the North county.  Kalispell, not Libby, is the place where Eurekans go to shop. 

When Koocanusa filled, Lincoln County’s connections between north and south severed.  Fifty years of growth has converted the North County into Libby’s cash cow for operating the county.  The only blessing is that we’re not getting as much government as we’re paying for.  We can’t expect fiscal responsibility from folks who are spending other people’s money – whether it be Libby, Helena or DC.

It’s time to quit electing nice guys and replace them with penny-pinching curmudgeons.