Sunday, November 14, 2010

Why Do We Need County Government

From the Wisconsin paper of record, The Lakeland-Times and the great Richard Moore.

Limiting counties to statutory duties saves money by forcing them to fulfill their function as an administrative arm of the state, and to do no more.

That's why counties were created in the first place. Long ago, however, supervisors began making political decisions and creating ever more government than was needed. Now these supervisors oversee huge budgets, enact tax levies of millions of dollars, and yet are elected by a handful of voters in spring elections.

More often than not, they are retirees, many of them retired public employees, looking for something to do in their later years. That something to do has inevitably wound up being to use their spare time to spend our unspare dimes.

By restricting counties to administrative responsibilities, county boards would not even have to be elected.


When do we start addressing big duplicated government? You need to read the whole article.

One question I have. Why do we have county transportation departments? Isn't it a duplication of the Wisconsin DOT?

Why do we have governors, a state assembly, a state senate, a county chairmen, a county supervisor, a mayor and town chairmen, aldermen and town supervisors? Why do we have county ag agents and the Wisconsin department of Ag? Why do we have federal, state, county and sometimes city or town social services agency's? How many positions does a state govornment have, which is all duplication and a waste of tax dollars?

Hummmmmmmmm.

2 comments:

DR said...

Love the post. We need to reign in all these out-of-control governments. It seems too often our local governments are growing and abusing their power as bad as the feds.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I liked your question. If you look at from a purely business perspective you would want to eliminate any duplication and streamline the process. Become lean, efficient and effective. This will reduce cost, improve quality and increase profits (savings)
So, why is it so hard to implement in government?