Voting, Taxing, and Wishing Someone Else Would Pay the Debt

Elections conjure all kinds of contradictory images. Perhaps the most contradictory of these relates to government programs and taxes. Everyone seems to favor some sort of government intervention whether it involves stronger defense, improved health care, transportation, or schools. Problem? All these programs cost money - money states must get from voters, and money voters don't always want to give the states.

Then there are those revenue sources that keep giving - until they don't give any more. This includes revenue sources such as all those multi-million-dollar tobacco settlements many US states received. That money was supposed to fund anti-smoking education. In reality it was diverted to fund school building projects, road construction, state worker salary raises, and...Oh yeah...the occasional anti-smoking awareness campaign.

Consider this: Most government programs are the typical "It sounds too good to be true" scenario. Most of these programs also have a hidden glitch that rarely makes itself heard in the endless sound bites. That glitch is a rigorous accounting of how the program will be funded and why so many of those funding sources have multiple levels of inconsistency imbeded in them. Here are a few examples taken from issues that will appear on ballots at the November 2002 election in the US. Are these policies that would get your "yes" vote, or are these simply confirmation of the late Emett Watson's assertion that "Politics is just an acronym for purely obvious lunacy intended to irritate citizen sensibility"?

'Tobacco Round Two'

The concept of a sin tax is obvious: Charge people exhorbitant fees for doing things they shouldn't do, and you will discourage that behavior. Sin taxes are imposed on cigarettes, exotic dancing, and other "sinful" activities. The problem with sin taxes is not their ability to generate good revenue. They definitely do that. The problem is the amount of credit candidates throw their way. How many times have you heard a candidate propose raising the cigarette tax to pay for something? And why do you think cigarette smuggling is so rampant? And how many times during the commentary that the politician lays all his/her grandiose plans at the gate of a cigarette tax is some verbal homage paid to discouraging people from smoking? Ah but if no one smokes, who will buy all those cigarettes whose tax will fund the program? Failing acceptance of a cigarette tax, there are other options.

'The Transportation Gauntlet: The Train Has Left the Station'

It has often been observed that the only two certainties in the world are death and taxes, but this estute recognition of reality is due one revision: The only certainties in the world are death, taxes, and traffic problems. As urban sprawl continues to sprawl, and as metropolises grow to megalopolises, the most obvious consequence is more traffic going the same way on the same roads at the same hours. The most logical solution to this transportation crisis is to have less traffic. But how to separate drivers from their cars is a topic that baffles response. High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have been introduced on most freeways but have been unsuccessful in promoting the concept of car pooling. The HOV lanes are often empty while idle cars clog the other lanes.

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