☆ Opinions: Local gov’t needs to “stick to its knitting”
At the end of the day, whether you’re a free marketeer or socialist, or somewhere else on the spectrum—cost of living matters. Like putting food on the table. Being able to pay rent, a mortgage. Running a business without gov’t running it into the ground. So we asked Opp Now contributors how the city/county can improve affordability—and Marc Joffe and Lance Christensen say it’s all about core services. An exclusive.
Marc Joffe, Contra Costa Taxpayers Association president: Silicon Valley governments can help lower the cost of living by narrowing their scope to core functions and lowering taxes concomitantly. Unfortunately, the entrepreneurship we so admire in the Valley has extended to government. Officials are too anxious to expand into areas like climate change, housing, and equity.
By taking on these non-traditional functions, they increase the size of local governments, which are then obliged to raise taxes to balance their budgets. Although these taxes might not fall directly on all residents, they are often passed through in the form of higher rents and prices. By sticking to its knitting, local government can contribute to affordability.
Lance Christensen, California Policy Center government affairs vice president: Silicon Valley has become an institution because the founders of some of the world's greatest tech companies were able to operate in an environment of wonder and creation unfettered by stifling government bureaucracies and heavy regulatory burdens. But success brought out the command and control instincts of the self-anointed and capricious busybodies, and California's decline is directly proportional to an ever-growing list of arbitrary rules.
If the titans of the Valley want to keep innovation flowing in coastal California and bring to reality a community that values all their citizens, it is essential to find men and women of integrity who can be elected on the promise of eliminating the policy roadblocks to prosperity without compromising life, liberty, and private property and held to those promises. They should believe deep in their bones that improvement in industry is far better at building a prosperous state that values all its citizens than government busybodies ever could be.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
We prize letters from our thoughtful readers. Typed on a Smith Corona. Written in longhand on fine stationery. Scribbled on a napkin. Hey, even composed on email. Feel free to send your comments to us at opportunitynowsv@gmail.com or (snail mail) 1590 Calaveras Ave., SJ, CA 95126. Remember to be thoughtful and polite. We will post letters on an irregular basis on the main Opp Now site.