Whose money is the government spending?

Posted Monday, April 27, 2015, at 9:10 AM

"Whose money is it?"

The young man sat down across from my desk. He was obviously perturbed about something so while my mind raced through every possible scenario for him coming to my desk, he struggled to speak.

"I want to know whose money is it," he said.

I waited. He went on.

"THEY are building that monstrosity and I attend the meetings and they keep talking like it's their money or it comes from federal grants. They act as if they don't understand where tax money comes from."

Then he waited while I formed a response.

I knew what he was speaking about.

The local government was gung-ho about spending several hundreds of thousands of dollars on a project and, because very few people showed up at this particular board's meetings, the elected officials assumed their plans were OK with the taxpayers. Or, it never occurred to them to ask.

The young man seated in my office became fascinated with government through a class in college.

He wasn't married and didn't have a girlfriend (as far as I knew) so he attended as many government meetings as he could. For all I knew,C-SPAN was his favorite TV channel.

"Why don't they understand the government does not have a bottomless well," he said. "They can't keep going back to it and think it will never go dry."

I had no answers for his question, "Why don't they understand?" but I understood government spending is a big issue. One might even say it's a big problem.

"Many people think we live in a democracy," I began. "But we don't. Our government is a republic. I know you understand the difference but it's a distinction that seems to escape a lot of people."

In a democracy, everyone has a say on every issue they choose to address.

If we lived in a true democracy, either no one would get anything done because they would constantly be going to the polls to vote on every issue or we would have to start voting over the Internet.

"Think Grant Street should be paved?"

Bam -- vote on it.

"Think Smith should be appointed dog catcher?"

Bam -- if enough people agree, he's in.

But that would only work in a very small group. Like on Gilligan's Island.

In Indiana and its 92 counties and many more cities and towns we have a republic.

We elect people who will represent us on various boards.

That is a two-edged sword.

On one side, it is an efficient way of conducting the public's business.

Another side takes the position it fosters the idea of ownership on an unhealthy level.

I can't tell you the number of times I have sat in a public government meeting and a statement similar to this has been made: "Janie has $18,000 in her budget she can spend on purchase X."

There may be $18,000 in that office's budget but in no way is it Janie's possession. It's not always in Janie's control. Before she can spend that money she often has to go before a government board and get permission.

We have beat this subject to death in various columns but taxes and revenue spending is as perturbing to many people as it was to my young friend.

And, too often, elected officials act as if the tax money they hold in trust is somehow their possession.

Akin to that issue is the issue of government grants.

"If we don't get it and spend it, someone else will," I have heard expressed in government meetings over the years.

So, even though it comes from tax revenue, our local officials are under an obligation to spend it on behalf of their constituents rather than let some other board down the road spend it to benefit their constituents. How noble.

The optimist says the glass is half full and the pessimist says the glass is half empty but the responsible voter and elected official needs to ask, "What's in that glass?" or more accurately, "Where did that money come from? Is this the best we can do with it?"

"When will he tell me something I don't know?"

Pardon me if you are still reading and asking that question but government officials all too often act as though they don't have a grasp of whose money it is.