Editorial Comment

You Can Make a Difference EDITOR’S NOTE: The following guest editorial is an excerpt from It’s Your Business:

Local and State Finawce, by L. Laszlo Ecker-Racz, which is being published this month by the National Municipal League (see announcement on back cover).

MERICANS are taking more interest in financial happenings around A county court houses, city halls and state capitols. I t would be instructive to know why. Is it a reaction to political skulduggery in high places? Is it because of increased government involvement in personal lives? Is it pos- sibly dissatisfaction with the adequacy of municipal services or the surfacing of age-old unhappiness with taxes? Whatever the reason, the people’s concern with state and local government is a wholesome development. I t should be nourished. . . .

To many people, government is spelled federal, although most services that touch them personally and directly are provided by state and local gov- ernment. For most people, also, government is synonymous with taxes, and while the national government has the larger half of the tax pie, people tend to identify their beef about taxes with their local communities. The counter- part of taxes is government services, but people find it difficult to think of taxes as the price they pay for services. Perhaps this is because their claim on them has no direct relationship to their tax payments. . . .

The questions raised in town meetings, public hearings, civic associations, chambers of commerce and other community gatherings vary in different parts of the country and even among communities in the same geographic area, because the problems are different. Moreover, the general environment in which government functions is continually in flux . . . . We have just been brought up short by the realization that heavy dependence on other nations for raw materials and energy sources makes the pace of our further economic growth partly dependent on the good will of their governments; that the productivity of our economy and the stability of our price structure are vulnerable to international influences; that our ability to continue to support more and more costly services is not unlimited.

Continued economic growth is as critical to government’s ability to respond to people’s needs as it is to improvements in their living standards. The public sector component of the American standard of living, that is the government’s contribution, has been improving steadily for nearly a generation. Govern- ment has been able to increase its activities by preempting a rising share of people’s incomes. Economic growth made this possible without encroaching on amounts left for private spending. The growth in national production was sufficient to permit a 163 percent increase in personal consumption spending at the same time. A continuation of this trend would not be possible if eco- nomic growth slowed substantially. . . .

When tax levels were low, public services meager, price levels relatively stable and the prospect for continued national economic pre-eminence was

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believed to be “forever,” it was routine and normal to insist on more respon- sive government, to demand more and better programs. An inadequately sup- ported public sector in the context of a growing national economy and a prosperous citizen majority enjoying a steadily improving standard of living provided endless opportunities for expanding government services to improve the quality of life for large numbers of people without encroaching materially on the life styles of others. Now, federal, state and local government opera- tions comprise over a third of national economic activity and the outlook for continued prosperity with price stability is not bright. The public is pro- testing tax increases. It is now more difficult to be confident about the rights and wrongs of more and costlier government programs. I t always may have been so. Perhaps all that has changed is that the media are doing a better job of reporting the public’s views. Opinion polls suggest very strongly, how- ever, that room for debate is substantial and widening. You should take part, it is your business. Mind it!

I t is necessary to distinguish between debate and self-pity. Taxes are a fact of life and cannot be wished away. The monkey is on your back to stay, and for good reason. Preceding generations have bequeathed to this one a land with a civilization second to none. This generation, in turn, is morally bound to preserve and improve it for those that follow-an obligation it cannot and dare not evade. A civilization that stops improving is a civilization that starts perishing. Some no doubt will demur, seeing no linkage between taxes and civilization’s progress; others believe their tax dollars misused. . . . A pop- ular democracy gives them the option to become involved, to ascertain the facts, to voice their views and to vote their convictions. You can make a difference !