Anger management

This is a request for you, Kind Reader, to compartmentalize your animosity toward the steaming pile of federal government that has forgotten that natural fertilizer becomes toxic when spread too heavily on once fertile fields.

A growing number of comments heard on this forum and told to this author suggest we are a collective of Howard Beale’s shouting out the windows that “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore.”

Count me in with those who are mad as hell at a federal government that long ago passed its level of effectiveness. The last gasps of the near-dead out-of-touch traditional media want us to believe greedy corporate bastards are the root cause for whatever ails us, but down deep we all rightly suspect that too many bureaucrats have perverted the movements of Adam Smith’s unseen hand.

Railing against the machine and shouting at the bums we want to throw out is a reasonable response but it’s not much of a short- or long-term solution. Shouting should never be considered a substitute for action, but Logic is often no match against Loud.

The concern then is that at the local government level we suffer from friendly fire resulting from rounds sent downrange toward schmucks in D.C. who would tell you with a straight face that government is the answer. The concern is that we throw the baby we love and have nurtured out with the federal government issued bathwater.

To wit, there was a recent fellow who ranted at a board meeting that the city of Fort Smith was $270 million or so in debt. He was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore. Logic was no match against his Loud. His anger created an inability to separate the terrifically irresponsible actions of a federal government that prints money as fast as the Chinese will buy it with a local government that has sought and gained voter approval for bonded indebtedness funding necessary infrastructure like a water supply, sewer system, modern public libraries, tourism facilities and street network.

Ahhh, yes, there is the Fort Smith Convention Center, you might say in retort. What about that mess? “That’s a clear local example of the nonsense we’ve come to expect from the Dems and Repubs in Congress,” you might note.

Not really. To compare the $1.2 million funding issue facing the convention center with anything coming out of Congress is to compare a trench for a sprinkler system to the Grand Canyon. What’s more, the city has in the past 15 years spent more than $250 million on public works projects and now finds itself with a $1.2 million mistake. Forgive the injection of perspective into the outrage, but I’d say that’s a damn good ratio.

But if we must focus on reducing local taxes, let’s consider which tax — all approved by impressive margins in this political conservative region of the state — we should nix first or which tax/project you believe was unnecessary.

What about the tax to fund the $200 million Lake Fort Smith expansion that has this region sitting pretty to about 2060 with respect to a quality and secure water supply?

What about the ongoing 1% street tax program which has created a street network civic leaders in almost any metro area would envy? Let’s get rid of that tax and go back to the days of not having enough money to fix existing roads much less build new roads to accommodate growth — which in turn leads to more tax revenue with the same tax rate. How about we cut that tax? How about we cut that tax and nix the Chaffee Crossing infrastructure investments that helped recruit the 200-plus jobs at Mars Petcare and the 200-plus jobs at Graphic Packaging and the estimated 400-plus jobs from Mitsubishi’s plant? Government is too damn big, so let’s cut that tax as soon as possible.

And screw the convention center. Do we really need to pay a $2.88 million tab to gain an $8.4 million economic impact? (Link here for the formulation of the tab vs. gain.) The thousands of people who come to our community and the $15-plus million Marriott hotels spent on a new hotel because of the convention center is and was a big mistake.

And then there is that crazy half-percent tax to fix a citywide sewer system that is more than 100-years old in some places. Let’s cut that silliness with much haste. Who cares that we often have raw sewage flowing through town after a hard rain? Hey, that’s the price we should be willing to pay to live in Fort Smith, right?

So which is it? What of the out-of-control, voter-approved spending was a mistake? Too much clean water? Are the roads too nice? Do we have too many books for our citizens? Is the place we welcome guests to Fort Smith too nice? Should we see how much more crap we can pump through a 100-year-old sewer system?

The above list of questions will be rejected by those whose valid anger and frustration has overcome perspective. They reject government — period, end of story. (Unless, of course, the federal government talks about cutting costs by closing four branch post offices in all of Arkansas. And then you’d think government was in the midst of a 20-year austerity program pushed too far by a Congress controlled by the National Amish Party.)

A recent direct conversation with a Tea Party supporter rejected my request to compartmentalize the animosity. The response was that government spending at all levels got us in this mess and government spending at all levels must be stopped.

Maybe so. But count me as one of those who think emotion-based reactions (let’s help the poor, let’s regulate Wall Street, let’s help the children, let’s save the planet, etc.) got us in this national mess and believes emotion-based responses will deliver us to another mess.