Taxes vs Services Provided

The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter has a great editorial here.

Excerpts:

Local and state taxes as a percent of personal income are not really the issue. A more important issue is the value received for tax dollars spent.

Taxpayers are consumers of government goods and services. The question they must always be asking and answering is: are we getting value for the tax dollars we spend?

Here are some questions taxpayers may want to consider about taxes from any governmental source:

•If we want lower taxes, what are we willing to give up? What can the government do less of or not do at all that will reduce the amount of money it needs to operate?

•If a service is important to us, are we willing to pay higher taxes or sustain the current rates?

•Are the services being delivered in a reasonably efficient manner? Can operating efficiencies reduce the money required to maintain the same level of service? Could the service be done less expensively in the private sector?

•Is the tax burden shared in an equitable manner? Are all segments, residents and businesses, paying their fair share and how is that share determined?

•Are exorbitant fees replacing tax increases? Should some government services be funded strictly by user fees?

OshNW Letter Writer Gets It Wrong - Walter Reed Scandal Caused by Private Sector Healthcare, not Public

In today's OshNW, a letter writer blamed 'National Healthcare' for the scandalous treatment of our troops at Walter Reed.

These past few weeks there have been disclosures of substandard medical care of our military personnel at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Be honest. Are we really surprised by this information? This medical facility is run by our government. Turn anything over to the "leadership" in Washington and this is what you get!

I wish this letter writer would have done more research in the matter. If he had, he would have learned that it was by turning the operations of the Walter Reed facility to private interests that caused the decrease in quality of the care.

An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly.

Documents from the investigative and auditing arm of Congress map a trail of bid, rebid, protests and appeals between 2003, when Walter Reed was first selected for outsourcing, and 2006, when a five-year, $120 million contract was finally awarded.

The disputes involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., a company with powerful political connections and the only private bidder to handle maintenance, security, public works and management of military personnel.

While medical care was not directly affected, needed repairs went undone as the non-medical staff shrank from almost 300 to less than 50 in the last year and hospital officials were unable to find enough skilled replacements.